Dinner sevice 'Shape 511' - serving dish | Collections Online - Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa

item details

NameDinner sevice 'Shape 511' - serving dish

ProductionPorzellanfabrik Schonwald; manufacturer(s); circa 1960; Germany
Heinrich Loffelhardt; designer; 1957; Germany

Classificationdishes, ceramics

Materialsporcelain

Materials Summaryglazed porcelain

DimensionsOverall: 264mm (width), 160mm (height), 205mm (depth)

Registration NumberCG001929/1-2

Credit lineWalter C Cook Decorative Art Collection, Gift of Walter Cook, 1992

Overview

Reading and collecting

Books and journals fed Walter’s fascination with design history and helped him connect international design trends to objects he found in Wellington.

The Decorative Art yearbook of 1956–57 featured the precursor to Schönwald’s dinner service ‘Shape 511’ among the ‘freshly created designs’ that year. Shape 511 would go on to win gold at the 1957 Milan Triennial Exhibition of Decorative Arts and Modern Architecture in Italy.

The Decorative Art yearbook was founded on the belief that ‘art in everyday things was the inalienable right of all’. This tenet is testament to the enduring influence of British designer and reformer William Morris, who had advocated just that. Morris’s beliefs continue to be expressed today through Walter Cook’s collection.