Lladro, Waterford and Villeroy & Boch are companies whose names evoke images of fussy figurines, and classic crystal and traditional china.
So then what’s this? A teacup with a horse-leg handle? A goblet with Indian etchings? A soup bowl shaped like some modernist sculpture?
Convention-defying surprises set the mood at Ambiente, the tabletop-heavy design show held earlier this year at the Frankfurt Fair and Exhibition Centre in Germany.
Ambiente was defined by its size as well as style: 4,600 exhibitors and 145,000 attendees — making it the world’s largest consumer-goods show.
Old stays young
The newsmakers this year: old purveyors of tabletop finery looking for ways to stay young.
These companies have hired top designers to dig deep into the archives and build contemporary designs around bits of the past.
Royal Copenhagen, founded in 1775 to serve the queen of Denmark, introduced Elements its first new tableware set of the 21st century.
The chrysanthemums immortalised on dainty saucers for centuries are sprinkled helter-skelter onto the edges of jugs, mugs and cheese boards.
Danish designer Louise Campbell even called for a departure from the company’s classic blue. In its place were tangerine, turquoise and black.
“It’s evolutionary, a reinvention within our cultural heritage,” spokeswoman Fikriye Selen-Okatan said, standing underneath a chandelier made of the new line’s broken plates. “It’s more modern, more casual, younger.”
Lladro of Spain, known to many people for its cherub figurines, has been the most radical in recycling its archives.
For its Re-Cyclos series, designer Bodo Sperlein used a horse figurine as the basis for his new Ascot collection.
A leg and a hoof formed the handles for a teapot, a cup and a sugar bowl; he linked two others together to form a napkin ring. Three horse heads served as the base of a pedestal bowl.
The 127-year-old company, Rosenthal, brought designer Patricia Urquiola on-board to tone down the florals and spotlight the luminescence of the porcelain.
With Landscape, she applied lace-like handles, soft patterns and graceful irregular borders to a pure white surface.
Villeroy & Boch, which started in Germany in 1748, introduced a modern country style of tableware called Urban Nature.
Strange beauty
Plates and cups took unconventional rectangular shapes and bowls looked like arching bridges.
The line was to be sold open stock, so it could be mixed and matched, a style promoted by many manufacturers in an attempt to attract freethinkers.
Waterford hired Michael Aram to create Garland Romance, a line of etched crystal vases, flared bowls and glasses.
The silhouettes and designs were not a big departure but Aram, who has lived in India for 20 years, introduced a line called Jaipur, inspired by the screen carvings and the architectural detailing that shaped India’s ancient skylines.
An ice bucket was made of nickel-plated brass, and shapely finials topped napkin rings, cocktail shakers and sugar bowls.
Generation beckons
“[These new designs] will reach out to a new generation that way,” said Nicolette Naumaun, vice-president of show producer Messe Frankfurt.
There were, however, a few holdouts.
The Meissen Porcelain Manufactory of Germany, which claims to be the first factory to make china outside China, didn’t move far from its roots.
At Ambiente, the company introduced a replica of a vase created in the mid-1700s — with moulded roses and fruits.
Only 50 will be made, priced around $25,000 (Dh92,000).
Buyers who attended the five-day show placed orders for workhorse items too: knives, trash cans, bathroom scales and waffle makers.
Even the nitty-gritty can shine: Berghoff of Belgium introduced three steel pots with strainer holes built into the lids, which can also be used as trivets.
Koziol displayed its Josephine lamps, whimsical pieces that continued the company’s run of affordable products that only look expensive.
For fun, Stöckel of Germany showcased scoopers that serve up ice-cream shaped like hearts, flowers or cubes.
OXO International of New York premiered a hand-held herb mincer. A few aisles away, Handpresso unveiled its one-pound hand-held espresso maker.
Instant espresso
Pour one-and-a-half ounces of hot water into the round reservoir, pop in a premeasured espresso pod, press the handle and the hot water is forced out into a single-serving cup.
The nomadic espresso maker, which will sell for around $150 (Dh551) in the US, came about because of complicated and expensive espresso machines, said French inventor Henrik Nielsen. “We decided to go the opposite way and look for simplicity.”
With so much to be gained in an industry that rakes in $80 billion (Dh294 billion) a year in the US alone, the copying of designs is a big issue.
At the Ambiente’s Plagiarius exhibit, original designs were held up on pedestals while their knockoffs appeared on the ground — an effort to shame copycats, who are sent a gnome with a golden nose.
Michael Peters of Messe Frankfurt said cases of patent infringement have decreased this year by half — to 500.
“Every exhibitor has to sign an agreement that their products are original,” Peters said. “Those who violate this are not invited back.”
Better then to borrow from your own archive.
