Designer: Ilonka Karasz (1896 – 1981)

Item: Coffee service

Manufactured by: Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC

Country of origin: United States

Year made: 1990 from a 1928 design

Materials: Silverplate over brass and walnut

Dimensions: Coffee pot 7” x 6 ½”, sugar 4” x 6 ½”, creamer 2 ½” x 6”

Condition: Excellent.  

Description: This is the very limited edition and hard to find reproduction done for a show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City in 1990 titled Modern Design 1890 – 1990 In the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  These were sold in the museum book and gift shop.  They are all marked “MMA” which we have seen confused by some as the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA).  We have also seen unmarked reproduction teapots from this design also as being from MOMA.  However, after much research we have not been able to find anything to support that MOMA ever sold reproduction Karasz.  The Metropolitan Museum of Art also produced a few other machine age items in conjunction with this show, such as KEM Weber’s silverplated Today Vase also marked “MMA”, but we have never seen another MMA Karasz coffee service come to market.  The original set from 1928 is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's permanant collection, and this set appears to be as high quality construction and craftmanship as the original.  Only two original sets have sold publicly at auction in the last ten years and each brought over $40,000. 

References: Duncan, Alastair. American Art Deco, Harry A. Abrams, 1986; Duncan, Alastair, Modernism: Modernist Design 1880 – 1940, The Norwest Corp, 1998; Johnson, Stewart J., American Modern: 1925-1940 – Design for a New Age, Harry A. Abrams, 2000; Stern, Jewel. Modernism in American Silver: 20th Century Design, Yale University Press, 2005; Callahan, Ashley, Enchanting Modern: Ilona Karasz, Georgia Museum of Art, 2003.