Wright Auction

The Table of Babel, assembled over many years,  is a Collector's collection of thirteen different place-settings of Modernist origin, each highly sculptural as well as directional in both form and manufacturing process, with many examples rare. Designed between 1927 and 1987, the set creates a new paradigm for the 'dinner party' table - a sculpture garden, where the homogenous ritual of dining together does not imply conformity, nor does it deny the participants' individuality or their human capacity for unique expressions of creativity. On the contrary, the eloquent display of diversity in artistic language, articulated so exuberantly through these domestic, intimate steel and silver abstract forms, encourages real dialogue. 

Modeled by ten different designers, The Table of Babel includes settings by Eliel Saarinen, Don Wallance, Gio Ponti, Jens Quistgaaard, Massimo and Lella Vignelli, Sergio Asti, Ward Bennett, Gaston Centa, Janos Megyik and Ilmari Tapiovaara.

Rather than maintaining a silver chest of identical services, most of which lie in waiting most of the time, The Table of Babel  provides an enormous range of possible juxtapositions, to be enjoyed not only by a single large gathering of thirteen individuals, but also by as few as two persons.

Table art, whether 17th Century figural sculpture made of sugar, or 18th century garden scenes modeled in porcelain, has traditionally been used to inspire harmony, not dissonance. These place settings, instruments in their own right, to be played and played with, in spite of their 20th century origins, carry on that centuries-old tradition. It is a true delight! – Murray Moss