LOUIS W. RICE (1872-1933) Highly Rare Five Piece Skyscraper Tea and Coffee Servicecirca 1928manu...

LOUIS W. RICE (1872-1933)
Highly Rare Five Piece Skyscraper Tea and Coffee Service
circa 1928
manufactured by Bernard Rice's Sons, Inc., New York, from the Apollo Skyscraper line, comprising a coffee pot, teapot, creamer, sugar bowl and tray, silverplated nickel, enameled metal, each piece stamped 'SKYSCRAPER/DES. PAT.PENDING/APOLLO E.P.N.S./MADE BY BERNARD RICE'S SONS, INC/5259' on the underside, the tray also stamped '18', each piece further monogrammed 'K' in an Art Deco line script on the side
height of coffee pot 9 3/8in (23.8cm); width 8 1/8in (20.6cm); depth 3 5/8in (9.2cm); length of tray 18 3/8in (46.7cm); width 15 1/4in (38.7cm); height 2 5/8in (6.6cm)
Footnotes:
Provenance
Private Collection, Georgia

Literature
Alastair Duncan, Modernism: Modernist Design 1880-1940, Norwest Corporation, Minneapolis, 1998, p. 220 (similar example illustrated)
The Jewelers' Circular, May 31, 1928, p. 14 (Sky-Scraper tea and coffee service illustrated)
J. Stewart Johnson, American Modern, 1925-1940: Design for a New Age, Abrams, New York, 2000, p. 48 (similar example illustrated)
The Keystone, May 1928, p. 23 (a period advertisement of a Sky-Scraper tea and coffee service illustrated)
H. A. Read, 'Twentieth Century Decoration: The Filter of American Taste,' Vogue, June 1, 1928, p. 116 (similar example illustrated)
Jewel Stern, Modernism in American Silver: 20th Century Design, exhibition catalogue, Renwick Gallery, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington D.C., Yale University Press, Dallas, 2005, p. 78, fig. 3.29 (three-piece Sky-Scraper tea service illustrated)
Richard Guy Wilson, Dianne H. Pilgrim, and Dickran Tashjian, The Machine Age in America, 1918-1941, catalogue exhibition, Brooklyn Museum, Abrams, New York, 1986, p. 287 (Sky-Scraper tea service illustrated)

A chamberstick in the same Sky-Scraper design is in the permanent collection of the Brooklyn Museum.
A teapot, sugar bowl, and creamer in the same Sky-Scraper design are in the permanent collection of the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum.
A coffee pot, teapot, sugar bowl, and creamer in the same Sky-Scraper design are in the permanent collection of the Minneapolis Institute of Art.

This set was recently featured on Antiques Roadshow Season 27 Episode 7 that aired on February 13, 2023, with an appraisal by specialist Jason Preston.