One of my favorite internet searches in for old flatware. So much of that great flatware is no longer produced today, but some of it, however, still is and there are many styles designed in the mid twentieth century (for our purposes that’s 1933 to 1965).
One of David Mellor’s earliest designs, the Pride Six Piece Cutlery Place Setting; £97 at David Mellor.
Grethe Meyer trained as an architect at the Academy of Arts in Copenhagen; her elegantly proportioned Georg Jensen Copenhagen Steel Cutlery is available in a matte and a mirror finish; €45 for a four-piece place setting at Georg Jensen.
Designed by Jens Quistaard for Dansk in 1953, the wood handled Fjord Teak Flatware is $115 at the MoMA Design Store.
In a design made by famed silversmith Allen Adler, the Round End Flatware was created in the 1940s out of Adler’s studio in Los Angeles. The set is $2,400 and available through March in San Francisco.
Designed by Arne Jacobsen for Georg Jensen, the AJ 5-Piece Place Settingwas the set used in Stanley Kubrik’s “2001: A Space Odyssey” and is made of matte stainless steel for $95 at A Muse.
From Geweso in Solingen, Germany, the Spatan Flatware is made of 18/10 chrome-nickel-steel and has a stainless satin finish; €183.95 for a set of 24 pieces from Geweso.
The Worpswede 4-Piece Flatware Set from Carl Mertens has a hollow handle and has been produced since 1932; €89 at Carl Mertens.
The Caccia Cutlery Flatware Set was designed by architect Livio Castiglioni (older brother of Achille Castiglioni) in 1938 and presented at the 1940 Triennale and was reissued in 18/10 stainless steel by Alessi; $35.89 for the 5-piece set on Amazon.
The Sambonet Silver Plated 5-Piece Place Setting was first designed in 1932 by Italian master architect Gio Ponti and re-edited in 2000.
Another 1940s design by Allen Adler, the Town & Country Flatware is made of hand-forged silver and ebony wood handles.