The Design Greats In a new series, we look at figures who have had an impact on the tabletop industry. This month – Carl Pott – a flatware manufacturer and designer considered to be one of the best. Johannes Seibel, managing partner and creative director of Mono GmbH, the company who now produce Pott-branded flatware, gives TI’s Mairead Wilmot some insight into the designer…
Carl Pott
Industrial
strength talent
Was Carl Pott a complicated man? That may be a fair summary of one of the most renowned flatware designers. Born in 1906 in Solingen, Germany – he had the good fortune to be born into a family of means. His father, also Carl Pott, owned a workshop which processed damascened steel for the cutlery industry – useful when you are about to become one of the most noted flatware designers of the 20th century. In their book, “Carl Pott: Perfecting the structure of function”, Brigitte Klesse and Gabriele Lueg, offer an in-depth study of the man, depicting him as incredibly driven, hardworking, stubborn, single minded and above all else, blindingly talented. After joining his family’s company in 1932 and training 26 TABLEWARE INTERNATIONAL
with damascened steel and galvinisation, Carl Pott turned his father’s small workshop into a flatware manufactory. According to the authors, flatware at the time
was over-the-top, impractical, – think Baroque, Rococo, Art Deco patterns – and Carl Pott, via his professor Paul Woenne at Solingen Technical College of
“We begin with function and then move onto form” Carl Hugo Pott, 1906-1985
Did you know?
Metallurgy, had become familiar with the ideals of the German Werkbund (reformers from industry and craft who were committed to revamping the trade. Pott even cofounded the newly re-established Werkbund in 1949). Pott quickly established himself as a designer of function, he could not stand flora, fauna and fancy – he wanted to create pieces that were meaningful, useful, practical and he would do it his own way.
Carl Pott employed the talents of many great designers to design flatware for his manufactory, including Dr Hermann Gretsch, who we profiled in the last issue of Tableware International. Other names include Wilhelm Wagenfeld, Josef Hoffmann, Elisabeth Treskow, Hans Schwippert, Paul Voss and Alexander Schaffner who all designed cutlery for the Pott production program.