Designer: Stanley Tigerman (1930 – 2019) and Margaret McCurry (b. 1942)

Item: Teatime tea service

Manufactured by: Swid Powell

Country of origin: Japan

Year made: 1986/87

Materials: Glazed stoneware

Dimensions: Overall 8” x 12 ¼” x 10”, teapot is 7 ¼” x 7 ½” x 4”

Condition: Excellent overall. The creamer, sugar, shovel and tray are all near mint. The interior of the teapot has tea staining and crazing to the glaze, which is to be expected as this was used, but it is not seen when the lid is on. The teapot also has some very light crazing on the exterior glaze as shown. No chips, nicks, cracks, or losses.

References: Tapert, Annette, SWID POWELL: Objects by Architects, Rizzoli (1990); Collins, Michael and Papadakis, Andreas, Post-Modern Design, Rizzoli (1989); Swid, Nan and Powell, Addie, Swid Powell, 14 page sales brochure (1986).

Description: Here is scarcely found and highly important design for Swid Powell by Tigerman and McCurry. This design was only in production for the single 1986/87 season so not many were made or sold. This design was after Tigerman and McCurry’s award winning Lakeside House, the small weekend home that Tigerman and McCurry built for themselves and their two children in southwestern Michigan near the shore of Lake Michigan. This set is designed based on the house and it’s two structures; one an attached adjacent octagonal screened porch and the other a square screened structure not attached to the house, but accessed from the house by an outside walkway. The handle on the teapot relates to the chimney on the house.

The stoneware that was used in many of the Swid Powell designs was thin and light and almost every example of this set we have seen of this design (very few as they are rarely found) has crazing to the glaze and some sort of damage such as chips, nicks and cracks. Usually the coffee pots have crazing in the glaze from use and the expansion and contraction of the stoneware from hot liquids being put into cooler containers. Because stoneware is fired at a lower temperature than porcelain it is less durable. Thus, finding flawless examples is difficult.

This example bears the ink stamped signatures of both Tigerman and McCurry on the bottom of each piece as shown, as well as the Made in Japan stickers on the tray and the sugar. An example of this set is on permanent display in the Yale University Art Gallery collection donated by Nan Swid from her personal collection. An example is also in the collection of the Art Institute Chicago that was a gift of the architects. The complete tea set with the sugar shovel is quite rare and very hard to find, and would be an important addition to any serious 20th century design collection.