Fingerbowl c. 1929 - 1930

Curator: Immediately I'm struck by the way light bounces off of these silver forms. Editor: Indeed. What we're looking at is a "Fingerbowl," a decorative-art piece made of silver, crafted sometime between 1929 and 1930. It’s currently part of the collection at the Minneapolis Institute of Art. Curator: I see the overall configuration: a larger, lobed bowl resting on a plate, and then these three smaller matching bowls arranged around it. What resonates with me is how the flower motif seems to both anchor the piece formally and also whisper something of delicate, civilized rituals of the period. Editor: The rose patterns, pressed into the silver, provide not only visual interest but texture as well, engaging haptic senses through suggestion. It gives the object depth, complicating the polished surface with shadows and detail. The floral element provides both symbolic encoding of luxury and the tradition of floral arrangement withing social practice. Curator: I notice, too, how the larger bowl is sectioned internally, which might suggest some now lost practical purpose. It almost hints at communal sharing and intimacy, given how fingerbowls were traditionally employed. There is definitely an aesthetic quality at play, an echoing of organic forms with each carefully placed dent on each bowl. Editor: The mirroring, achieved through repeated units – in size and decorative application – gives us a seriality common of decorative art in this period, almost hinting at the machine's potential for mimicking natural design and the subtle anxieties around such repetition that marked modernity at the time. It feels like an object suspended between nature and mechanical replication. Curator: It really embodies the complexities and cultural paradoxes of its time, offering us now a lens into a period both opulent and on the cusp of vast change. Editor: Exactly, what initially struck me for its metallic elegance unveils such intriguing layers upon closer look.