After Wilhelm Wagenfeld

This teapot and teacups are domestic glassware applications of the highly heat-resistant scientific and optical glass developed in Germany at the Schott and Genossen Glassworks. Inspired by the spare geometry of glass laboratory vessels, Bauhaus-trained Wilhelm Wagenfeld used the practical and translucent material to design a tea set perfectly aligned with Modernist principles of functionality and simplicity. Some of the greatest painters, graphic designers, architect/designers, and thinkers of the period were drawn to the Bauhaus, first in Weimar (1919–25), then in Dessau (1925–32), and finally in Berlin (1932–33), where it was permanently shut down by Adolph Hitler’s Third Reich. Many influential Bauhaus innovators came to the U.S. after its closure. Wagenfeld was one of the few Bauhaus designers to establish a continuing and successful involvement with industrial mass production. His classic teapot design is still being made at present with only slight design modifications. RISD’s set dates to the 1950s, when Wagenfeld’s student Heinz Löffelhardt was Schott’s chief designer.