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Object Timeline

2009

  • Work on this object began.

2014

2015

2024

  • You found it!

Paper Porcelain Tea Cup, Prototype

This is a Tea cup, prototype. It was designed by Scholten & Baijings. It is dated 2009 and we acquired it in 2014. Its medium is slip cast, fired unglazed porcelain with added metal drill dust, applied pencil lines, applied marker or ink. It is a part of the Product Design and Decorative Arts department.

The Paper Porcelain tableware series was conceived as a project to translate paper models—an integral part of the designer’s process—into porcelain. Dutch designers Stefan Scholten (b. 1972) and Carole Baijings (b. 1973) started by drawing to figure out forms, geometry, and color. Next, they created cut, folded, scored, and taped cardboard models, and then unglazed porcelain prototypes. To recreate the cardboard’s spotted, gray surface in the porcelain prototypes, the designers developed a specific mix of porcelain to which they added metal drill dust. Strips of paper tape on the cardboard models were recreated using ceramic glazes. Pencil lines applied by hand to the porcelain prototypes indicated the scored lines of the cardboard. The final tableware manufactured by Hay is made of molded and glazed porcelain, and faithfully mimics the spotted gray of the original cardboard and the beige “paper tape.”

It is credited Museum purchase from General Acquisitions Endowment Fund.

  • Brooch (Germany)
  • steel, acrylic lacquer.
  • Gift of Helen W. Drutt English in memory of Mark Dallas Butler.
  • 1999-55-2

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This object has not been digitized yet.

Its dimensions are

H x W x D: 8.1 x 9.5 x 7 cm (3 3/16 x 3 3/4 x 2 3/4 in.)

It has the following markings

"S&B / 2009 / 2" applied to underside in marker or ink

Cite this object as

Paper Porcelain Tea Cup, Prototype; Designed by Scholten & Baijings; The Netherlands; slip cast, fired unglazed porcelain with added metal drill dust, applied pencil lines, applied marker or ink; H x W x D: 8.1 x 9.5 x 7 cm (3 3/16 x 3 3/4 x 2 3/4 in.); Museum purchase from General Acquisitions Endowment Fund; 2014-38-7

This object was previously on display as a part of the exhibition Making Design: Recent Acquisitions.

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If you would like to cite this object in a Wikipedia article please use the following template:

<ref name=CH>{{cite web |url=https://collection.cooperhewitt.org/objects/68250799/ |title=Paper Porcelain Tea Cup, Prototype |author=Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |accessdate=19 April 2024 |publisher=Smithsonian Institution}}</ref>