How You Can Identify A Genuine Art Deco Coffee Machine

Art Deco Coffee Machine,article,The term wasn't coined until the 1960s..Genuine Art Deco coffee machines date back to the late 1920s;contrast to the flowing, organic lines of Art Nouveau, Blocky geometry and straight lines...

How You Can Identify A Genuine Art Deco Coffee Machine
The first Art Deco coffee machines, weren't sold as Art Deco, or even called Art Deco. The term wasn't coined until the 1960s. At the time designers were making coffee machines in the now familiar idiom, they hadn't come up with a name for it. There was no conscious movement. More often than not, it was called the 'Modern' style - and it was modernity that these pre-industrial coffee machine designers aspired to.

The dream of automated production
Genuine Art Deco coffee machines date back to the late 1920s. In stark contrast to the flowing, organic lines of Art Nouveau, Art Deco looked toward a time of automation and fabrication - a time that lay just beyond the grasp of the technology then available. It's this fantasy of an age of industrial mass production coupled with the extremely skillful craftmanship that was required to emulate it that embues Art Deco coffee machines with their unique tension and charm. It was all about freedom. Designers believed that automation would set mankind free.

It was also an age of class division. Coffee drinking was still a ritual to be enjoyed by the middle to upper classes. Coffee sets, including cups, grinders, urns and milk steamers were made of quality materials. The apparent indutrialisation of Art Deco coffee sets belied their exclusivity in terms of both materials and craftsmanship.

Top five ways to identify an Art Deco coffee machine
There are five ways to identify a true Art Deco coffee machine. Look for:
1. Blocky geometry and straight lines.

2. An attempt to create unnatural and futuristic effects with the limited materials available at the time.

3. Streamlining, in imitation of the first streamlined vehicles such as cars and trains. Once the combustion engine was accepted as reliable vehicles became streamlined in the pursuit of greater speed - or at least the look of greater speed. And the same streamlining was applied to coffee machines.

4. Unashamedly industrial designs that look hostile to humans. You'll find Art Deco cocktail glasses whose sharp, square designs in the stem make them hard to hold. Or spherical bakelite ashtrays with a cross-shaped inset lid that require a PhD to open. They were meant to look automatic, from a world of machines. They are not meant for humans.

5. Innovation for innovation's sake often led to features beyond the scope of the technology of the time.

The demise of the Art Deco coffee machine
The post-war generation saw the dream of fully-automated industrial production become reality. Coffee machines, just like cars, became available to all. Design became more populist. The idiosyncrasies of the one-off Art Deco coffee machines were dropped in favour of less challenging details and cheaper materials. The age of the Art Deco coffee machine came to an end before it had ever earned its name. And the name it earned says little of its industrial aspirations, and more about its true function - decoration and adornment for the privileged.

By: Chris Ramsden
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