Covered Compote

Danish-born Erik Magnussen’s early pieces for Gorham reflect the stylized vegetal and foliate motifs popularized in the United States by his countryman Georg Jensen. Nonetheless, Magnussen realized that “America demands something plainer, something vitally characteristic.” As a result, by 1926 his designs stressed simplicity, function, and opulent materials. A writer for Good Furniture Magazine acknowledged this trend: “He has developed an American style—a style that is plain, dignified, pure of line, and yet with an indefinable touch of the new, modern feeling.”