Gio Ponti

Diamond flatware service for 24
circa 1958
Sterling silver, stainless steel.
Largest utensil: 10 3/4 in. (27.3 cm) long
Manufactured by Reed & Barton, Newport. Each fork and spoon impressed Reed & Barton/STERLING and each hollow handle piece impressed REED & BARTON/MIRRORSTELE/STERLING HANDLE. Comprising 24 dinner forks, 24 salad forks, 24 dinner knives, 24 butter knives, 24 soup spoons, 48 teaspoons, 21 cocktail forks, 2 serving spoons, 2 slotted serving spoons, 2 cold meat forks, 2 ladles, 2 sugar spoons, 2 pie servers, and a 2-piece salad serving set (203).

Literature
"Nice Weather for Parties," Vogue, April 15, 1958, pp. 118-19
Jewel Stern, Modernism in American Silver: 20th Century Design, exh. cat., Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, 2005, p. 245 for a drawing and an advertisement
William P. Hood and Jewel Stern, "The Diamond Pattern by Reed & Barton," Silver Magazine, May/June 2007, cover, pp. 14-18, 20-22

Artist Biography
Gio Ponti
Italian • 1891 - 1979
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Among the most prolific talents to grace twentieth-century design, Gio Ponti defied categorization. Though trained as an architect, he made major contributions to the decorative arts, designing in such disparate materials as ceramics, glass, wood and metal. A gale force of interdisciplinary creativity, Ponti embraced new materials like plastic and aluminum but employed traditional materials such as marble and wood in original, unconventional ways.
In the industrial realm, he designed buildings, cars, machinery and appliances — notably, the La Cornuta espresso machine for La Pavoni — and founded the ADI (Industrial Designer Association). Among the most special works by Gio Ponti are those that he made in collaboration with master craftsmen such as the cabinetmaker Giordano Chiesa, the illustrator Piero Fornasetti and the enamellist Paolo de Poli.
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