Loving Cup

Produced by the Chicago silver firm Lebolt & Co., this loving cup is an example of machine-age practices introduced at the height of the Arts and Crafts movement. Unlike the hand-hammered Chicago metalwork of this period, the vessel has a smooth finish. Its bowl was formed from a sheet of machine-rolled metal rather than worked by hand from a silver bar or ingot. Lebolt’s interest in mechanical methods reflects the philosophy of Chicago architect Frank Lloyd Wright, who wrote in 1901,“in the Machine lies the only future of art and craft.”