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Carl Hugo Pott and Carl Pott - Industrial Designers - Futuristic Fantasy Silverware

The Industrial German designer, Carl Pott (1906-1985) was born into a cutlery legacy. His father was Carl Hugo Pott, part of the German town - Solingen, the so-called knife town. Still today many of the great cutlery names use Solingen as their base of operations. Carl joined his father at the family company in 1932, just when there were new ideas about design. The German Bauhaus was inspiring new ideas and establishing a modern style across Germany. These Bauhaus concepts left behind the over decorated, and the Pott's family operation stylistically introduced clean lined, functional and ergonomic flatware. Soon the younger Pott would become known as the international designer and craftsman that brought intensity and technical innovation to flatware.     

"Leave out the expendable and create the Useful even more so perfect and beautiful"

In 1935, the Pott family laid down the cornerstone of a silverware program with his plain, smooth Model 2716; that noticeably raised itself above the other assortments of the flatware producers in Germany. At the World Expo in Paris in 1937, the 31 year old Pott received the international award "Diplom D´Honneur" for this very silverware model. In the early years, he encountered a great deal of opposition to his un-adorned and minimalist designs, but eventually, the Pott style asserted itself. During most of his life, Carl Pott was in close contact with other significant designers of functional objects. He ran his designs by them, and at the same time, challenged them to develop their own flatware patterns.
Pott - Got on Board with Modern-Day Flatware

In the fifties, Pott was able to create and supply Lufthansa, model 21 for the airline.  During this time air travel was elegant, new, fresh and exciting, and people dressed-up.  He dedicated his entire life to “spoonery” as he jokingly referred to his design, since he always started his flatware designs with the spoon. His opus as a designer and at the same time entrepreneur has always had and continues to have an influence in the flatware industry. 
Lufthansa used Pott's MCM jet-setting flatware to
add modern elegance to every flight. 

As a testimonial to his designer acumen in the world of cutlery history, his entire company archive can be found at the museum of Solingen Deutsches Klingenmuseum.  The cultural significance of Pott's contributions to everyday design is evident by his 700 plus awards for various products, as well as the global recognition by numerous museums that have purchased his works for their design collections, including MoMA. Today in the global trade world, it seems almost antiquated to see this type of quality and precision in flatware except for the very rich, where every detail of smoothing, sharpening, honing, sanding, and polishing cannot be computerized.  In 2006 the company after 102 years on family property was taken over from the family, and is now in new hands.
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"Great design costs no more than poor design,
so always pick subtle elegance and quality"
©2021. Waller-Yoblonsky Fine Art is a research collaborative, working to track artists/desingers that got lost and overlooked due to time, changing styles, race, gender and/or sexual orientation. Our frequent blogs highlight artists/designer and movements that need renewed attention with improved information for the researcher and art collectors. The blog was created by Mr. Waller and all written materials were obtained by the Fair Use Section 107, of The Copyright Act. #waller-yoblonskyblogspot #walleryoblonskyblogspot #chugopott #hugopott #carlhugopott #germanflatware #lufthansasilverware #lufthansaflatware




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