Five-Piece Place Setting Yale University Art Gallery

Introduced 1989

On view, 1st floor, American Decorative Arts before 1900

Swid Powell partnered with the esteemed silver manufacturer Reed & Barton to produce flatware and serving pieces. This stainless steel place setting was designed for Swid Powell by the husband-and-wife architecture team of Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown. It is a playful adaptation of the classical orders: when inverted, each element becomes a column surmounted by a Doric, Ionic, or Corinthian capital. This typically postmodern appropriation literally turns the language of classical architecture on its head.

Medium: Stainless steel
Dimensions: Knife: 9 1/2 in. (24.13 cm)
Credit Line: Swid Powell Collection, Gift of Nan Swid
Accession Number: 2011.200.15.1-.5
Geography: Manufactured in Japan
Culture: American
Period: 20th century
Classification: Flatware
Disclaimer: Note: This electronic record was created from historic documentation that does not necessarily reflect the Yale University Art Gallery’s complete or current knowledge about the object. Review and updating of records is ongoing.

Provenance

Swid Powell, New York, by 2001; Nan G. Swid, New York, 2001–2011; Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Conn., 2011

Object copyright

In Copyright

Additional information

Subject

Women designers

Marks

Stamped on the back of all pieces (except dinner fork) and printed on the blade of the knife: Reed & Barton / Swid Powell / (c) Ventrui / Scott Brown / JAPAN

Technical metadata and APIs

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