Vintage Model 2000 Coffee Service by Richard Latham & Raymond Loewy for Rosenthal, Set of 23

Raymond Loewy is known as the father of American industrial design and is credited with inventing the American “streamline” aesthetic.

Born in 1893 in Paris, Loewy displayed a high affinity for design in his formative years. Early success came with his model aircraft, which won the Gordon Bennett Cup in 1908 and led to the commercial sales of the toy plane Ayrel. Loewy went on to study electrical engineering at the University of Paris from 1910 to 1914.

After serving in the French Army during the First World War, Loewy moved to New York City in 1919. He worked briefly as a fashion illustrator for Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar before turning his interests to product design. In 1929, he was commissioned to design the exterior casing for for Gestetner duplicators machines and unveiled his “streamlining” concept: a design approach inspired by aerodynamics and aimed at efficiently using materials to keep production costs down. He found popular success in 1934 with his Coldspot Refrigerator for Sears-Roebuck in 1934, and streamline-style appliances, furnishings, automobiles, more would become highly sought-after into the midcentury.

Over the course of his career, Loewy consulted for more than two hundred different companies, leaving his mark on the design world with designs ranging from cigarette packaging and household appliances to cars and spaceships. His most well-known contributions to design history include the iconic red and white Lucky Strike logo (1940), his long collaboration with Coca-Cola, including the Dole Deluxe Fountain Dispenser (1947), the Studebaker Starliner Coupe (1953), the Airforce One livery (1960s), the John F. Kennedy memorial postage stamp (1964), the Exxon (1966) and Shell (1971) logos, and the NASA Skylab (1973), among others.

Loewy held professorships at esteemed institutions such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Columbia University, and the University of Leningrad. He founded three design companies: Raymond Loewy & Associates in New York, Raymond Loewy International in London—the largest firm of its kind in Europe—and Compagnie de I'Esthetique Industrielle in Paris. He has also published many articles and books, including The Locomotive: Its Aesthetics (1937), Industrial Design (1951), and the autobiography Never Leave Well Enough Alone (1951).

Notably, he was featured on the cover of TIME Magazine in October, 1949.  In 1975, The Smithsonian Institution opened The Designs of Raymond Loewy, a four-month exhibition dedicated to Loewy and his life’s work.

Loewy passed away in 1986 at the age of ninety-three. 

German porcelain manufactory Rosenthal was originally founded as a ceramics-painting studio by Philipp Rosenthal Sr. (1855-1937) in 1879 at Schloss Erkersreuth in Bavaria, near the Czech border. Its first highly popular product was an ashtray inscribed with the words “Resting place for lit cigars.” In 1890, the company moved to the neighboring hamlet of Selb and, a year later, began to manufacture its own porcelain, since white porcelain was, at that time, in short supply. Rosenthal’s first complete table service was called Empire; it was exhibited along with other lines at Paris’s Exposition Universelle in 1900.

With the dawn of the 20th century, Rosenthal began producing porcelain tableware and services formed and decorated in the latest styles, like the Jugendstil Botticelli (1903), the Art Nouveau Darmstadt (1905), and the all-white Maria (1916) lines. Successes with this au courant approach led the company to launch an art pottery division in 1910, dedicated to luxury tableware, vases, and other decorative objects. By the 1930s, figurines were another important Rosenthal product, most notably the Disney-licensed Mickey Mouse pieces introduced in 1931.

In 1934, Philipp Rosenthal was forced to leave his company and country when his Jewish ancestry came under persecution by the Nazi regime. Despite the loss of its founder, the Rosenthal company remained the premier supplier of high-quality porcelain tableware to the Third Reich. After the war, in 1950, Philip Rosenthal Jr. (1916-2001) joined his father's company as an advertising manager. By 1958, he had become its CEO, continuing his father’s vision to produce high-quality porcelain in line with progressive tastes. Through the rest of the 20th century, Rosenthal was the most commercially successful porcelain producer in Germany.

In the postwar era, Rosenthal’s most famous tableware lines have included 2000 by Raymond Loewy and Richard Latham (1954), Magic Flute by Bjørn Wiinblad (1959), Suomi by Timo Sarpaneva (1976), and Moon by Jasper Morrison (1997). The company has enjoyed many popular and critically acclaimed collaborations with designers and brands, like Salvador Dalì, Tapio Wirkkala, Walter Gropius, Andy Warhol, Ron Arad, Enzo Mari, Konstantin Grcic, and Versace.

Rosenthal's product lines have encompassed more than ceramics over the years. In 1972, the company began producing furniture, under the subsidiary Rosenthal Einrichtung, in Espelkamp, Germany. Standouts from this arm of Rosenthal include Gunter Ferdinand Ris and Herbert Selldorf’s futuristic Sunball Lounge Chair (1969), Verner Panton’s Relaxer Rocking Chair (1974), Burchard Vogtherr's Vario Pillo Sectional Sofa (1970s), Vico Magistretti’s lightweight Faun Chair (1970s), and Erwin Nagel’s multifunctional Quadrondo Table (1980s). Later, Rosenthal focused on the production of high-quality office furniture, as well as decorative accessories for private interiors.

In 1997, Rosenthal became an independent arm of the Waterford Wedgwood holding company, but in 2009 faced bankruptcy as the Irish parent began to fall apart. At this time, Rosenthal was sold to Italian housewares group Sambonet Paderno Industrie. Unfortunately, Rosenthal Einrichtung was desolved and only a limited archive of the company's archive was kept intact.

Today, Rosenthal GmbH offers a small, exclusive range of furniture options under the label of Rosenthal Interieur, alongside its classic porcelain and tabletop collections.

* All images courtesy of Rosenthal GmbH.