"What is Art Deco?"

There seems to be an astonishing range of opinion to this question. Mentioning Art Deco can conjure up all sorts of images: Posters with imposing passenger ships moored in the harbor ready to take you to somewhere exotic.

Beautiful chrome drink shakers, the Chrysler and Empire State buildings, those georgeous radios from Fada or in my case the beautiful clocks that were produced. The term itself comes out of the Exposition Internationale des Arts Decoratifs et Industriels Modernes at the 1925 Worlds Fair in Paris. It has come to be something of a catch all covering, unlike previous schools of design, not one type of form but a whole range of output covering many tastes.

One aspect in particular, Industrial design, flourished in America with the likes of Walter Dorwin Teague, Kem Weber, Walter von Nessen and many others and was reflected in the tableware, hardware, appliances and cars of the day.

Personally I love Art Deco, especially the more machine and industrial age elements that seem to place so much faith in a brighter future that technology will bring us. Much of this was produced before and just after World War 2 so we can't claim it came from some more "innocent" time but I think it might have been a slightly less cynical age... one that doesn't yet know some of that faith in technology was misplaced; that it can serve more than one master...