Unlike the Arts & Crafts movement—which was rather short-lived, and mostly killed-off by World War One—the Art Deco movement left a much longer and very influential mark on the history of aesthetic design. The "look" coalesced in the mid-Twenties, was put onto the back burner during World War Two, and came roaring back for parts of the 1940's and 1950's. While the Arts & Crafts school was labor-intensive, thus expensive, and a bit avant-garde in its day, Art Deco was well-suited to mass production techniques and could be applied to any manner of consumer product. Thus, the Art Deco style was found on everything from electric toasters, soda bottles, Bakelite radios, eye glasses, tea kettles, automobile fins—even lamp plugs and skyscrapers.
The stoneware vase, above, made in 1930's or 1940's Denmark, has a strong Art Deco sensibility. Nevertheless, it gives a hint of the Scandinavian Modernist movement, soon to sweep throughout the Baltic nations. It was made by Michael Andersen on the Danish island of Bornholm. Click on the photo above to learn more about it.
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