With her sister Mariska, Ilonka Karasz emigrated in 1913 from Budapest, where she had studied at the Royal School of Arts and Crafts. Working in Greenwich Village over several decades, she designed ceramics, wallpaper, silver, embroidery, rugs, furniture, book illustrations, and New Yorker covers. Many of her handworked fabrics express an early interest in European folk motifs. Karasz's metalwork, however, more often shows the influence of the German Bauhaus design school, which, under the direction of Walter Gropius, was gaining attention for the modern designs of some of its teachers and students, as well as for its progressive teaching methods. This crisp, geometric tea-and-coffee service represents one of the strongest expressions of Bauhaus style in America. Part of the functionality of the design is that all the pieces were made from the same extruded pipe, making it less expensive for a mass-market.