Keystone Silver Co (American, Est. 1914)
Alfons Bach (German, 1904-1999)
Cocktail Shaker
chrome plated, bakelite
12 ½” high x 6 ½” wide (spout to handle) x 3 ½” diameter
Vintage Art Deco chrome and bakelite cocktail shaker, design attributed to Bauhaus trained Alfons Bach (1904-1999) for the Keystone Silver Co., circa 1920-1950.
Highly geometric in nature, the cylindrical body has two bands of parallel rings equidistant from the center. The top ring is intersected at the front by the perpendicularly banded spout with screw on safety cap and an interior grill for straining. The lid is pressure fit with “telescoping” domes flattening at the peak and surmounted by a red bakelite spherical finial. The matching red bakelite rectilinear half arch handle is strategically positioned and affixed at the center of the top band and rim to the center between the two bands in the body. The body is raised on a dome ring with rolled edge.
Artist Biography: BACH, Alfonse (1904-1999) German Industrial Designer specializing in tubular steel, Watercolour Painter. Born in Magdeburg, German; lived in Munich; schooled in film and design in Berlin; moved to New York, NY, 1926. NOTABLE DESIGNS: Sach’s, Hoover Building, NYC; Seneca Textile Building, NYC; Ridgeway Center; Lloyd Manufacturing Co.; Palm Trail Plaza, Palm Trail Yacht Club, Delray Beach; General Electric; Keystone Silver; Pacific Mills; Bigelow-Samford. EXHIBITIONS: Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC; International Industrial Design Exhibition, 1962. ASSOCIATIONS: American Designers Institute, President. COLLECTIONS: Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum; Yale University Art Gallery; Metropolitan Museum of Art, among others
