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Object Timeline
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1928 |
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1930 |
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2024 |
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Pair of Modern American Cocktail Cups Cocktail Cups
This is a cocktail cups. It was designed by Erik Magnussen and manufactured by Gorham Manufacturing Company. It is dated 1928–1930. Its medium is silver. It is a part of the Product Design and Decorative Arts department.
In 1928 Gorham hired the Danish silversmith Erik Magnussen to develop modern designs in order to update their existing traditional offerings. Although when Gorham hired Magnussen he was little-known, the manufacturer presented him to the American public on a national tour to lecture, demonstrate silversmithing, and publicize the possibilities of modernism in American silver manufacture. Here Gorham was capitalizing on the trope of industrial design to emphasize the face behind the name and in this case, the designer behind the finished products. These cocktail cups belong to the Modern American line, Magnussen’s second line of designs for Gorham. The range included flatware, candlesticks, plates, and a range of hollowware. These cups went to a larger matched set of a cocktail service. The cups lack any added decoration and instead their visual interest is found in the severity of their form. Although designed for serial production, the line was never made in large quantities.
This object was
donated by
George R. Kravis II.
It is credited Gift of George R. Kravis II.
- Object ID #18802815
- molded and extruded plastic.
- Gift of Public I. Publicity Services, Inc..
- 1984-8-2
- No. 267 Cocktail Tumbler
- mouth-blown crystal.
- Museum purchase through gift of Dale and Doug Anderson, Anonymous Donor,....
- 2009-18-115
- No. 267 Cocktail Tumbler
- mouth-blown crystal.
- Museum purchase through gift of Dale and Doug Anderson, Anonymous Donor,....
- 2009-18-143
Our curators have highlighted 5 objects that are related to this one. Here are three of them, selected at random:
- Nudawn Glass
- plastic (orange) , metal.
- Museum purchase from Pauline Cooper Noyes Fund.
- 1993-77-3
- Object ID #18475693
- cast silver-plated metal.
- Gift of Rodman A. Heeren.
- 1971-92-1-a,b
- Object ID #991173963
- printed paperboard binding, gilt-lettered cloth spine.
- Smithsonian Libraries, Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Library, TX951.C76 1930.
- 43.2016.17
Its dimensions are
H x diam. (each): 13.3 × 10.2 cm (5 1/4 in. × 4 in.)
It has the following markings
Underside of each cup, incuse in inner ring: [1] GORHAM mark [lion, anchor, gothic “G”] [2] STERLING [3] A14083 [4] em [stylized and conjoined]
Cite this object as
Pair of Modern American Cocktail Cups Cocktail Cups; Designed by Erik Magnussen (Danish, 1884–1961); Manufactured by Gorham Manufacturing Company (United States); silver; H x diam. (each): 13.3 × 10.2 cm (5 1/4 in. × 4 in.); Gift of George R. Kravis II; 2018-22-26-a,b
This object was previously on display as a part of the exhibition The Jazz Age: American Style in the 1920s.
