Tavola Quadrata Piccola
Pewter centrepiece cm 21 x 21 x 15 h, limited edition of 49 pieces. Pewter casting finished by hand with soldering and brush polishing operations. Blown Murano glass plate.
| Collezione | Tavole |
|---|---|
| Design | Ettore Sottsass |
| Edizione Limitata | 49 pieces |
| Materiale | Cast pewter hand-finished with welding and brush-polishing operations |
The edition size is the planned total for the edition, not the number of pieces currently available.
This work is part of the NUMA catalogue. Contact us to enquire about availability or other works in the collection.
The complete story of the work
Translated from the Italian original.
Tavole are six large centrepieces in limited edition, in pewter or pewter and blown glass “designed to give meaning to the table and make it more magical and ritual”. Extraordinary interpretations by Ettore Sottsass of traditional materials, in the strongly iconographic language that distinguishes the great master.
Ettore Sottsass’s design journey leads us, in 2004, to the meeting between the lightness and colour of Murano glass and the strong architectural construction of the pewter parts. The transparency of the glass does not hide the structure of the metal; it contains and discreetly protects the good fruits and offers them to our desire as a precious good. The fourth NUMA collection is made up of six pieces, six centrepieces that tell us of the joy and pleasure of conceiving objects that will accompany us in our gestures and in our daily rituals, becoming a happy part of our everyday life.
«Pewter is an ancient metal alloy: tin, copper, lead… whatever is made from this alloy turns out motionless, solid, heavy. Contemporary pewter no longer contains the lead that gave objects a dark, medieval, Germanic surface: this alloy contains antimony instead, and so brilliant objects are made, similar to silver, which nevertheless do not lose their immobility and presence».
Ettore Sottsass
Pewter is an ancient material, worked in Europe as early as the early sixteenth century by pouring a tin alloy into engraved iron or brass moulds, and then working it with the techniques of etching and hammering to obtain forms of the craft tradition. Contemporary pewter, the protagonist of the Numa collections, is a noble alloy in every respect, with extraordinary ductility and great plastic quality. Contemporary Pewter is made up of a composite mix of metals, with the absolute exclusion of lead; it therefore retains unaltered the distinctive characteristics that set it apart and its great plastic quality; it is absolutely hygienic and can be used to make objects for serving at table and in the kitchen, as well as, naturally, all furnishing objects.
Material:
Pewter is an alloy composed of tin and small quantities of antimony and copper. Because of its ductility it has been used by man since antiquity to create objects of common use. In more recent centuries, a percentage of lead was added to the tin, which was soon banned because of its toxicity. The pewter used to make Numa objects is an alloy composed of 95% tin, and the absolute absence of lead makes it fully compliant with the EEC standard EN-611/1.
Production stages:
- The first operation in the production cycle is the purchase of the raw material, in ingots or sheets of pewter ready to be melted, or the purchase of ingots or sheets of tin, wires or bars of copper and antimony, which, melted in the special melting furnace at a temperature of 250-300° C, give pewter
- The molten metal is poured by hand with a ladle into rubber moulds. These moulds are mounted on centrifuges: machines that rotate the mould during the pouring and drying of the alloy.
- After the drying phase the operator removes the product, which is then deburred with scissors and ground.
- For the pieces that need it, manual assembly by tin soldering follows
- The pieces are then placed by hand into the vibrating machines, where they remain for about 2 hours. Vibration smooths the surface of the object by means of water and ceramic inserts (inert material).
- On leaving the vibrating machines the pieces are checked and, if necessary, straightened with rubber hammers. After this stage comes the final stage of hand polishing with brushes.
- Finally, each individual piece is stamped with the designer’s signature, the Numa logo and its number.
N.B. All production stages are carried out by highly specialised craftsmen at the atelier of the Master pewterer Alfredo Marinoni, Cellatica (BS).
Specifications
| Collezione | Tavole |
|---|---|
| Design | Ettore Sottsass |
| Edizione Limitata | 49 pieces |
| Materiale | Cast pewter hand-finished with welding and brush-polishing operations |
Request information about this work
Write to us to ask about the availability of a piece, lead times or other works in the collection. We will reply to the address you provide.
Your enquiry concerns: Tavola Quadrata Piccola (ME9TLI/PIQU)