Modernist Reed& Barton PEWTER CREAMER / PITCHER

BEAUTIFUL Modernist SOLID PEWTER

CREAMER

REED & BARTON

PATTERN # P 212

This beautiful creamer from my aunt's collection, was probably designed by famous metalsmith John Prip.  His designs are in major museums and he is known for his beautiful danish/scandinavian Modernist style.  MID CENTURY MODERN styling at it's best.

Mr. Prip was Craftsman in Residence at reed and barton when this piece was most probably produced...the 1950's 

The design is very Modernist, Eames Era, It is in the scandinavian danish design genre....Arts and Crafts Movement Era. 

As a metalsmith who has made holloware myself, I have to tell you this is truly a beautiful design in all of its simplicity and so well executed....the proportions are just well done. It is simple and beautiful and in MINT CONDITION.  I know she never used it.  It was kept in her dining room breakfront.

The creamer stands 3 1/4" high and 2 3/4" in diameter. It is in mint condition, no deep scratches or marks in the pewter.

It is patinaed (duller) and does need a polishing, but, I think that is best left to the new owner's choice.  The best part of pewter is you can polish out scratches with a soft cloth or very, very fine wet sanding paper. Sometimes, even rubbing with your fingers will remove fine scratches....

The bottom of the pitcher says REED & BARTON PEWTER P212 (pattern number).  I could not find a similar creamer anywhere on the net, but found similar creamers in size and design selling from $50-$225 upwards that were post world war II designs...when pewter had a resurgeance of popularity.

American-born, Danish-trained John Prip,  designed  for Reed & Barton in 1950's,  in the Scandinavian Modernist vein. Prip was Craftsman-in-Residence at R & B; he was brought on board full-time after his 'Lark' flatware design had become a solid success for the company. Prip later cut back his involvement with R & B to half-time, so that he might teach at the Rhode Island School of Design and other universities.  His works are in many art museums and galleries worldwide.

His designs for Reed & Barton were not marked with his name, the Pewter pieces only say Reed Barton Pewter and then have a model number beginning with a P. This was in accordance with R&B's usual practice for holloware.

You can read more about John Prip here

Background on Reed and Barton:

"Founding the Company in the Early 1800s

The man responsible for the founding of Reed & Barton, Isaac Babbitt, never worked with silver. He first employed pewter--an alloy composed of lead and tin and used to make everyday items such as tankards and dishes. Babbitt, who ran a pewter shop in Taunton, Massachusetts, then found a way to emulate a white metal alloy made from tin, antimony, and copper called Britannia metal, used by the British in the making of flatware and holloware sold in the United States. In 1824 he joined forces with Taunton jeweler William Crossman, forming a company named Babbitt & Crossman to produce their own Britannia tableware. Over the next two decades the company added associates and periodically amended its name, becoming Babbitt, Crossman & Company in 1827, Crossman West & Leonard two years later, and the Taunton Britannia Manufacturing company in 1830. Along the way, Henry G. Reed and Charles E. Barton, friends and fellow craftsmen, came to work at the firm. When the business failed in 1834, following years of steady growth, Reed and Barton, just in their 20s, stepped in to buy it. In 1837 the company was renamed Leonard, Reed & Barton, then in 1840 it assumed its modern name, Reed & Barton. The two men would run the business together for three decades. After Barton died of a heart attack in 1867, Reed carried on, but as a tribute to his longtime friend he decided to retain Barton in the company's name. Ownership of the firm would be passed down through the Reed family.

By the mid-1800s Britannia fell out of favor as a tableware material, supplanted by a new substitute for the prohibitively expensive silver. Sheffield Plate, developed in the 1740s, fused sterling silver to a plate of copper, but in 1840 this technology was superseded by electroplating, which deposited a thin layer of silver on a base metal, copper and later nickel, to produce items with a pure silver appearance. Electroplated silver gave consumers the look they wanted at a reasonable price, and as a result, by the early 1850s the new metal replaced both Sheffield Plate and Britannia metal as the flatware material of choice. Reed & Barton followed the market, and thus became involved in silver for the first time and a pioneer in the practice of silverplating. But silverplate would soon find competition from an unsuspected corner: sterling silver itself. In 1859 the legendary Comstock Lode of silver was discovered and once mining operations in the area were up to speed, silver flooded the market, bringing down prices to the point at which there was little difference between the price of items made from silverplate and actual sterling, which now became the material preferred in wedding gifts. Reed & Barton turned to sterling manufacturing in 1889 and by the end of the century committed an entire factory building to its production.

you can read more here...." by fundinguniverse.com

It would make a great gift...or just a wonderful gift for someone that loves pewter or collects it...and a great addition to your modernist decor.

Happy bidding......

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2009!!!!

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