Tapio Wirkkala - Important Nordic Design London Wednesday, November 16, 2011 | Phillips

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  • Provenance

    Important private collection, Finland

  • Literature

    Marianne Aav, Rosa Barovier Mentasti and Gordon Bowyer, et al., Tapio Wirkkala - eye, hand and thought, exh. cat., Museum of Art and Design, Helsinki, 2000, pp. 191, figs. 336 and 369

  • Catalogue Essay

    Tapio Wirkkala, eponymous designer of the ‘Tapio’ flatware service, designed the exhibition for the Finnish Pavilion at the 1958 Exposition Universelle et Internationale in Brussels. Wirkkala also included works in the ‘Five Warehouses Pavilion’, a collateral exhibition devoted to the modern consumer and sponsored by five Belgian department stores. Wirkkala’s display, which included the present model flatware, won a competition to interpret domestic life in the year 2000.

44

Set of ‘Tapio’ flatware

designed 1957
Precious metal.
Longest: 26 cm (10 1/4 in)
Manufactured by Kultakeskus Oy, Finland. Each utensil marked with manufacturer’s mark, Finish assay mark, silver purity mark, Hämeenlinna town mark, and date code mark. Consisting of twelve dinner forks, twelve salad forks, twelve dessert forks, twelve dinner knives, twelve salad knives, twelve butter knives, thirteen dinner spoons, twelve soup spoons, twelve dessert spoons, eight demitasse spoons, two cake servers, five relish forks, three sandwich forks, two fillet knives, master butter knives, one ladle, three serving spoons, one iced tea spoon, and one cheese scoop (137).

Estimate
£10,000 - 15,000 Ω

Sold for £13,750

Important Nordic Design

17 November 2011
London