KEM WEBER (1889 - 1963)
FRIEDMAN SILVER CO.
Rare Silver Style four-piece tea set, USA, 1928: teapot, creamer, lidded sugar, tray
Silverplate, rosewood
Impressed manufacturer mark to each
Teapot: 6" x 8 1/4" x 5 1/2", tray: 1 1/2" x 14 3/4"
Please see condition report
Literature: Christopher Long, Kem Weber: Designer and Architect, New Haven, Yale University Press, 2014, pp. 81-83
The Friedman Silver Company of Brooklyn commissioned Kem Weber to design two lines of silver-plated vessels and accessories in 1928-29. While the “To-day” series employed a pattern of fluted lines descended from the ornament of the Wiener Werkstatte as well as Weber’s studies with Bruno Paul in Berlin, “Silver Style” was more aggressive in its embrace of the new American Machine Age, featuring a tapering body and step-back lid which evokes the modernist skyscrapers of the era.
The present lot is only the second complete four-piece tea set to appear on the market. A previous set was sold at Wright, Chicago, December 9th, 2007, Lot 187, and now resides in a private collection. Only one other tray (paired with a cocktail shaker, which would appear to be the most commercially successful piece in the line and which is occasionally mistaken for a coffee pot) is known to exist. It was sold at Sotheby’s, New York, March 7th, 2012, Lot 154, and is now in the collection of the Cooper Hewitt, promised gift of George Kravis, and currently on view in their “Jazz Age: American Style in the 1920s” exhibition.

New sterling lid on sugar made to original specifications. Some wear, scratches, and losses to silver plating, mostly to tray. Overall very good vintage condition.