Tea infuser, model no. MT 49

Marianne Brandt trained as a painter, but she made a name for herself with reductivist and geometric forms that appear machine-made. Despite appearances, many of her most famous designs were hand-fabricated, including this tea infuser. This example was originally owned by Hajo Rose, a German photographer and graphic designer who was a fellow student at the Bauhaus. The reddish-hued half-sphere of the pot, made of tombac (an alloy of brass, copper, and zinc) with a silver strainer for the tea, is dramatically bisected with dark geometrical elements crafted from polished ebony. The choice of materials--tombac for its heat-retention properties and ebony to keep it cool enough to handle--exemplifies the pot's utilitarian nature.