Reed & Barton Modernist Footed Bowl, Model 79, Silverplate, ca. 1950s–60s

Story

A Reed & Barton silverplate bowl from the firm's midcentury modernist line — a rounded-triangular form sweeping into a smooth conical center, raised on three teardrop feet. No ornament, no pattern, no engraving. The design is the entire event: a single continuous curve that reads as pure geometry from above and seems to float when seen from the side.

At eleven inches across, this is a proper centerpiece — larger than the small dishes that usually surface from this series, with the scale to hold a table on its own.

This is American silver at its mid-century turning point. Reed & Barton, by then more than a century old, spent the 1950s and 60s bringing Scandinavian-influenced modern design into American dining rooms — sculptural giftware that traded the repoussé and scrollwork of the past for clean line and honest form. This bowl belongs to the numbered series at the heart of that program, stamped model 79 on the underside with the factory mark.

The teardrop feet are the detail worth studying — three small sculptures holding up a fourth. Use it for fruit, for the center of a table, or for nothing at all.

Origin

Found at an Atlanta estate sale. Stamped REED & BARTON 79 with factory cipher on the underside. Silverplate throughout, as made — this bowl was produced without the enamel interior found on some pieces in the series, letting the polished silver carry the form alone.

On Reed & Barton and American modernist silver

Reed & Barton of Taunton, Massachusetts was one of America's great silversmithing firms, operating from 1824 to 2015. In the late 1950s the company made a deliberate turn toward modernism, bringing the Danish-American silversmith John Prip on as designer-in-residence and building a giftware program of sculptural bowls and dishes that put modern form on ordinary American tables. The numbered series from this era — atomic-age shapes on teardrop and tripod feet, some with vivid enamel interiors, some in plain silver — is actively collected today, documented in Jewel Stern's Modernism in American Silver (Yale University Press, 2005), the standard reference on the period.

Condition

Very good vintage condition, freshly polished. Light surface scratches to the interior consistent with age and gentle use, visible on close inspection at an angle. Plating intact throughout with no wear-through, no dents, no repairs. Sits level on all three feet.

Dimensions

3" tall x 11" wide