posted 09-20-2009 02:25 PM            

Modern flatware design: the viande/grille/vogue style

From his 2003 article:

quote:

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"Until about seventy years ago, the basic form of table knives had not changed for more than two centuries, although the materials used to make them and the ornamentation employed to decorate them had evolved over time. Except for folding types (1) and some individual fish knives, table knives had always had handles that were shorter than, or of equal length to, their blades. This changed in 1930 when a new style was introduced commercially. Variously called Viande, Grille, and Vogue, the new style called for the handle to be longer than the blade. The creator of this new form, the rationale behind it, its possible antecedents, the manufacturers who adopted it, the patterns in which it was made, and what eventually came of it are the basis of this article.

The story begins in 1927 or 1928, when nine architects were invited by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City to design thirteen room settings for The Architect and the Industrial Arts, its eleventh exhibition of contemporary American design The organizers requested that all furnishings and accessories for a room be included, and they stipulated that no object to be displayed could already be in production. (2) For this event Eliel Saarinen, the distinguished Finnish-born architect and designer,3 created a dining room in shades of brown and tan, outfitted with four new patterns of flatware that were displayed on the dining room table (Fig. 1). (4)

The flatware prototypes (see Fig. 2) were made by Dominick and Haff, a New York City subsidiary of Reed and Barton of Taunton, Massachusetts; the Towle Manufacturing Company of Newburyport, Massachusetts; the International Silver Company of Meriden, Connecticut; and Rogers, Lunt and Bowlen Company (1901-) of Greenfleld, Massachusetts. Each pattern was comprised of a seven-piece place setting (fish fork, salad fork, dinner fork, fish knife, dinner knife, teaspoon, and tablespoon). All employed handles that were cylindrical, or a flattened cylinder, tapering toward the base and topped by a skyscraper-inspired design. But the most remarkable thing was that the knives had unusually long handles and proportionally short blades. (5) The dinner knife executed by International Silver, for example, was 9 1/4 inches long, with its handle measuring about 6 inches. The handle of its dinner fork was about average (approximately 5 inches), but the functional end was shorter than usual, to match the abbreviated knife blade. The idea for the new style of table knife came from the perception that it is uncomfortable for the extended index finger to press against the narrow back (or "top") of the blade when one cuts with' a conventional knife. Saarinen's remedy was to extend the handle so that the forefinger made contact with a wider, and hence more "comfortable," part of the implement. (6)"

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