Barware Exhibition

If the earliest dining utensils were our ancestor’s own hands, then the earliest barware can be traced to gourd jars used by cultures living in South America around 7,000 BC along with the knowledge that fermented grains with added spices were enjoyed by Ancient Egyptians circa 3500 BC. While not completely ignoring thousands of years of international barware history, today the International Museum of Dinnerware Design is celebrating barware employed and enjoyed by people beginning in the 1920s and 1930s, often referred to as the “age of the cocktail.” This Art Deco style barware featured popular streamlined and industrial shapes by Chase, Manning Bowman, and Revere. The age of the cocktail, along with the Golden Age of the Cocktail Shaker, ended abruptly on December 7, 1941, with America’s involvement with World War II. All metal went to the war effort. It’s been noted that the companies that once made cocktail shakers switched their production to artillery shells. 

Mid-Century barware from the 1950s – 1960s is also to be celebrated. While it did not have the same elegance as the 1920s-1930s, it instead had a post-war aesthetic reflecting a time of relative prosperity and peace, where barware was silk-screened with atomic molecules and exuberance reigned in barware design. Shakers were replaced by push button technology in dispensers and more.

Designers of both eras that you’ll recognize and are included in this special pop up exhibition include Eva Zeisel, Russel Wright, Ernest Sohn, Carl Auböck, A.D. Copier, Dorothy Thorpe, Per Lutken, Freda Diamond, Michael Lax, and others.

Cocktail shakers, martini pitchers, ice buckets, bottle openers, drink stirrers, bar glassware, cordial sets, sake bottles, punch bowl sets in metal stands, metal cocktail trays, a beer stein with a lithophane bottom, a tantalus or two, more than one brain-teaser wooden puzzle, vintage paper goods, beer tapsters, and the rare 1941 Bakelite Porto Baradio are featured barware objects collected by IMoDD and on exhibition in Barware. The exhibition also includes at least one vintage bar cart, and wire sculpture of wine bottles and spilled wine created by Portuguese artist David Oliveira. If you like chrome and glass then you’ll be content. 

Sandy Skoglund’s The Cocktail Party, a 48” x 65” archival photograph, created by the artist in 1992, which includes cocktail glasses covered in Cheese Doodles, is one of the earliest acquisitions by the museum. This acquisition is a key to understanding the IMoDD permanent collection, as IMoDD collects functional work by international contemporary artists and industrial designers in all media, and additionally collects fine art that references and celebrates dining. 

IMoDD relocated nearly a year ago from Ann Arbor, Michigan to Kingston, New York. The collections are currently gradually being unpacked. Only a portion of our barware collection was chosen for this exhibition, so there will be more to enjoy at a future date. Cheers.