Rare Ilonka Karasz (1896–1981) Modernist Coffee Pot — Electroplated Silver & Walnut

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This is a rare and beautifully preserved coffee pot from the celebrated tea-and-coffee service designed in 1928 by Ilonka Karasz … Read more This is a rare and beautifully preserved coffee pot from the celebrated tea-and-coffee service designed in 1928 by Ilonka Karasz for Paye & Baker. This set is widely acknowledged by design historians as one of the most rigorously modern silver-plated services produced in America during the late 1920s, and this piece stands as a singular example of Karasz’s interpretation of the modernist ideal.

The body of the pot is composed of a vertically-reeded (fluted) cylindrical form – the primary shape here being the cylinder, which is then capped by a circular lid and paired with a rectilinear handle of walnut (or similar hardwood) and a wooden finial. In the vocabulary of modernist design, these “circle, cylinder and cone” shapes (as described in the curatorial record) indicate a deliberate reduction of ornamentation and reliance on pure geometry.

Karasz’s design beautifully balances functional clarity with elegant materiality. The electroplated silver body is matched with the warmth of the wooden handle and finial, a thoughtful detail that both insulates the user’s hand and introduces a contrast of texture.

Ilonka Karasz (1896–1981) was a Hungarian-born designer who emigrated to the United States in 1913 and went on to an extraordinarily varied career spanning textiles, furniture, illustration (notably for The New Yorker), and industrial design.

In the late 1920s she became associated with modernist design groups in the U.S., including the American Designers’ Gallery and the American Union of Decorative Artists and Craftsmen, organizations committed to elevating the standard of contemporary design.

Her 1928 hollowware service for Paye & Baker is often cited as “the most severely minimal service to have been produced industrially in America in the 1920s.”

The inspiration for Karasz’s metalwork coincides with the geometry-driven aesthetic of the German Bauhaus school and designers such as Marianne Brandt (though there is no direct proof Karasz knew Brandt’s work). Karasz’s re-interpretation of cylindrical and conical forms on cruciform or cylindrical bases marked a distinctly American modern take on European ideals.

In fact, the Yale University Art Gallery notes that her tea‐and‐coffee service represents “one of the strongest expressions of Bauhaus style in America.” See less