Robert A.M. Stern Silverplate Pitcher for Swid Powell, Italy, 1986

Story

A silverplate pitcher designed by Robert A.M. Stern for Swid Powell, produced in Italy in 1986 — one of Stern's iconic contributions to the postmodern architects' tabletop movement of the 1980s. The body is a Doric column; the top of the capital swells out on one side to form the spout; the scroll handle arcs lyrically upward, countering the solidity of the vessel with a single confident gesture. Classical vocabulary translated into contemporary sculpture.

Signed on the underside: Swid Powell / Made in Italy / Silver Plated / RAMS (Robert A.M. Stern's designer monogram). Documented example in the collection of the Yale University Art Gallery, Swid Powell Collection, gift of Nan Swid, accession number 2011.200.16. Additional examples in the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Dallas Museum of Art.

On Robert A.M. Stern and Swid Powell

Robert A.M. Stern (1939 - 2025) was one of the most significant American architects of the late twentieth century — founding partner of Robert A.M. Stern Architects (RAMSA), Dean of the Yale School of Architecture from 1998 to 2016, and author of the definitive multi-volume architectural history of New York. His work is characterized by reinterpretations of traditional architecture, from nineteenth-century shingle cottages to Art Moderne skyscrapers, translated through contemporary sensibility.

Swid Powell was the New York tableware company founded in 1982 by Nan Swid and Addie Powell — two former Knoll colleagues who translated postmodern architecture from the skyscraper to the dining table. They brought in a generation of prominent architects — Stern, Richard Meier, Michael Graves, Ettore Sottsass, Philip Johnson, Robert Venturi, Stanley Tigerman, Zaha Hadid, Frank Gehry — and produced tabletop objects that are now considered defining works of postmodern design. The company's papers were donated to Yale University Art Gallery in 2007, accompanied by the exhibition The Architect's Table: Swid Powell and Postmodern Design.

The Stern pitcher is documented in SWID POWELL: Objects by Architects (Annette Tapert, Rizzoli, 1990), the standard reference on the collection.

Origin

Found at a New York City flea market. A quietly significant object — the kind of piece that photographs beautifully and reads to the informed eye immediately, but sat on a table waiting for the right buyer to recognize it.

Condition

Excellent. The silverplate is bright and intact across the body, the handle, the spout, and the pedestal foot. One small, effectively invisible rise on the right side of the rim — perceptible only when a finger is run along the edge, not visible to the eye. No plate loss, no dents, no scratches beyond the light surface wear expected of a piece from the mid-1980s. The scroll handle is tight and structurally sound.

Dimensions

Approximate: 11¼ in tall × 6¼ in wide × 10 in deep (28.5 cm × 15.9 cm × 25.4 cm).  Weight: 3.1 kg (approximately 6.8 lbs)

Dimensions referenced to the Yale University Art Gallery accession record (2011.200.16)