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SILVER SALT CELLAR

Designer

Aldo Bakker

Manufacture

Jan Matthesius

Circa

2007

Description

Commissioned by Dutch furniture and design objects producer, Thomas Eyck, Aldo’s silver tableware collection is a prolongation of the original porcelain series. It continues to unfold beautifully crafted serving objects with designs that guide the service ritual and movement in a natural and whimsical way. A couple of hours north of Amsterdam, Thomas Eyck presents and develops collections of furniture and design objects inviting guest artists to create a specific material in collaboration with local craftsmen that Thomas carefully selects. Advocating for the quality and value of traditional craftsmanship, Thomas supports the workshops of Netherlands’ skilled hands while inspiring the craftsmen to explore innovative techniques to serve our contemporary lifestyle together with the design luminaries of today. Thomas’ collection, named t.e., is the reflection of his close attention to linking the right material, the right workshops and the right designer together. The Sterling silver salt cellar results from the on-going collaboration Aldo Bakker and Jan Matthesius. Netherlands-based, Jan was first trained as a mechanical engineer before receiving his goldsmith education at the Schoonhoven school in the province of South Holland. Schoonhoven is renowned for its heritage of silversmith going as far back as the 17th century hence it is nicknamed Zilverstad ("Silver City"). Inspired and interested in Jan’s combined skills, Aldo says: “As long as I have known Jan’s work, he has shown skilled uses of tools in different and creative ways others than those for which they were made.” Jan Matthesius is the craftsman collaborator behind all silver and fine metal works for Aldo. In parallel to his collaboration with Aldo, Jan designs and fabricates exquisite jewelry pieces. His work is collected by the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam and the Museum for the modern art in Arnhem. Jan won the Schoonhoven Silver Award in 2006. “I am always touched by the correctness of Aldo’s designs. It takes a second glance to comprehend the shape, movement and functionality of his design as a whole. They are mind-provocative and whimsical. Every detail and movement is thought through and feels just right. His approach and thorough thinking of the life in movement of the object as it interacts with its end user is where lays our challenge as collaborative craftsmen. We thrive through meeting the commissioners’ expectations and find solutions to give life and form to his design ideas while addressing every specificities and technical challenges it may unfold at first.”

Aldo Bakker

Born in the Netherlands in 1971 to Dutch designers Gijs Bakker and Emmy Van Leersum, Bakker grew up in an environment infused with a strong aesthetic sensibility. Rather than a formal design education, he forged his own path by training as a silversmith. Bakker set up his own studio in 1994, later moving into furniture and product design.

Bakker is interested in organic forms and movements that defy time, zeitgeist, functionality, and purpose. Those who see Aldo’s design for the first time are often drawn to the form or the materiality before they wonder what their purpose is.

This engaging and intriguing moment is important to the designer who grew his own unconventional approach to design in the scholarly household of two Dutch design icons. As opposed to most designers, Bakker rarely starts a design idea from the desire to solve a problem or address practical needs. Most of his objects start from the fascination for the timeless beauty of a form and the movement it may suggest; the form and its movement would then inspire a function. The cleverness and oddity of Aldo’s designs give his objects some type of natural legitimacy and timelessness.

Bakker’s pieces result from the dexterity of his master craftsmen collaborators — silversmith Jan Matthesius, ceramicist Frans Ottink, woodcrafter Rutger Graas, urushi master Sergej Kirilov or metalsmith Andre van Loon among others.

Widely published and exhibited in Europe today, Aldo held his first large exhibition at the Amsterdam Gallery ‘Binnen’. Invited by Ilse Crawford of the Eindhoven Design Academy in 2002, Bakker has fulfilled a successful tenure at the Design university for over ten years. Today the designer continues selected collaborations with renown manufacturers while further completing his personal collection with master craftsmen and galleries around the world.

Born in the Netherlands in 1971 to Dutch designers Gijs Bakker and Emmy Van Leersum, Bakker grew up in an environment infused with a strong aesthetic sensibility. Rather than a formal design education, he forged his own path by training as a silversmith. Bakker set up his own studio in 1994, later moving into furniture and product design.

Bakker is interested in organic forms and movements that defy time, zeitgeist, functionality, and purpose. Those who see Aldo’s design for the first time are often drawn to the form or the materiality before they wonder what their purpose is.

This engaging and intriguing moment is important to the designer who grew his own unconventional approach to design in the scholarly household of two Dutch design icons. As opposed to most designers, Bakker rarely starts a design idea from the desire to solve a problem or address practical needs. Most of his objects start from the fascination for the timeless beauty of a form and the movement it may suggest; the form and its movement would then inspire a function. The cleverness and oddity of Aldo’s designs give his objects some type of natural legitimacy and timelessness.

Bakker’s pieces result from the dexterity of his master craftsmen collaborators — silversmith Jan Matthesius, ceramicist Frans Ottink, woodcrafter Rutger Graas, urushi master Sergej Kirilov or metalsmith Andre van Loon among others.

Widely published and exhibited in Europe today, Aldo held his first large exhibition at the Amsterdam Gallery ‘Binnen’. Invited by Ilse Crawford of the Eindhoven Design Academy in 2002, Bakker has fulfilled a successful tenure at the Design university for over ten years. Today the designer continues selected collaborations with renown manufacturers while further completing his personal collection with master craftsmen and galleries around the world.

Aldo Bakker Ateliers Courbet Dutch Silversmith Furniture and Product Design