Rare Ilonka Karasz tea pot by Paye & Baker Mfg. Co, 1928 (MOMA Collection)
Rare Ilonka Karasz tea pot by Paye & Baker Mfg. Co, 1928 (MOMA Collection)
Ilonka Karasz tea pot by Paye & Baker Mfg. Co. 1928. Part of the Museum of Modern Art Collection.
https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/481956
CREATOR: Ilonka Karrass for Paye and Baker
Karasz designed this tea pot as part of a coffee and tea service for the Paye & Baker Mfg. Co. This service, comprising circles, cylinders, and cones, would seem to indicate that Karasz was highly influenced by the Bauhaus focus on geometric form as the basis of design. The only purely decorative element in the piece is the reeding around the body. Reeding and fluting, which themselves could be viewed as cylindrical forms, appear to have been acceptable exceptions to a reliance on pure form in American modernist silver of the period. Karasz may also have been influenced by Jean Puiforcat, whose "Sphere" tea and coffee service designed in 1928, also features projecting cylindrical dowel handles.
PERIOD: 1928
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: United States
CONDITION: GOOD (see condition description).
CONDITION DETAILS: In excellent condition. Some tarnish.
MATERIALS AND TECHNIQUES: Silver plate on copper, walnut.
DIMENSIONS: HEIGHT: 5 inches (13 cm), DEPTH: 6.5 inches (17 cm), WIDTH: 4 inches (10 cm).