The stage show Top Hat started London’s current craze for 1930s style. Great Gatsby-mania is now taking off, ‘the Twenties look’ already embraced by fashion, beauty and men’s grooming. At the London Silver Vaults a selling exhibition Art Deco – Silver in the ‘Style Moderne’ gives you the chance to buy original Art Deco silver from the two decades.
The Twenties and Thirties were a delicious
interlude when the bright young things of the day overthrew the fussy styles of
the past. In came the crisp lines of Art
Deco - elegance, glamour, functionality and modernity, first feted at
the 1925 Paris Exposition des Arts
Decoratifs.
Architecture, furniture, textiles and also
silverware and jewellery, from Europe to the USA, embraced the clean lines of
industry and took inspiration from exotic ancient cultures (Egyptian, Aztec,
tribal African) and the influence of cubism and futurism in art.
In silver, Art Deco is all about sleek, stretched shapes
in architectural forms, with geometric and stylised detail. Surface
pattern is minimal, allowing the burnished smooth patina of the metal to
gleam.
French designers leading the style were
Paul Poiret, René Lalique, Jacques-Émile Ruhlmann, Jean
Dunand and Jean Puiforcart. English silversmiths took their cue, and
makers such as Walker & Hall, Atkins Brothers, Carrington & Co, Adie
Brothers and Mappin & Webb created wonderful Art Deco tableware and
accessories. Tiffany was the jeweller of
the day.
Art Deco design looked good in the Twenties
and Thirties and still makes a statement in Twenty Thirteen. Items for sale
range in price from a set of 12 cocktail cups in silver plate for £240 (Linden & Co) to a pair of sterling silver tazzas in a Jean Puiforcat design made
by Elkington at £6,500 (S &J Stodel).
