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Lot Essay
This coffee service was the centerpiece of Gorham's contemporary holloware collection, entitled CIRCA 70. The line, which included candelabra, bowls and a mixing pitcher, was the brainchild of Donald Colflesh, the firm's staff designer. Gorham's promotional literature reveals space travel was a source of inspiration, but these works also relate stylistically to the works of Frederick Miller of the Cleveland Institute of Art and the designs of Henning Koppel for Georg Jensen.
The coffee service was designed in 1958 and introduced in 1960, while the formica tray was introduced after Colflesh left the company in 1962. A tea and coffee service of the same design, now in the collection of Dallas Museum of Art, is illustrated in Jewel Stern, Modernism in American Silver: 20th-Century Design, 2005, pp. 260-261.
The coffee service was designed in 1958 and introduced in 1960, while the formica tray was introduced after Colflesh left the company in 1962. A tea and coffee service of the same design, now in the collection of Dallas Museum of Art, is illustrated in Jewel Stern, Modernism in American Silver: 20th-Century Design, 2005, pp. 260-261.