coffee-percolator
- Museum number
- 2014,8024.517.a-e
- Description
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Coffee maker, stainless steel, in five parts: a pot ('caldaietta' or boiler) with horizontal wood handle (a), a filter in the form of cylindrical canister (b), closed with a pierced microfilter (c), a lidded coffee-pot ('caffettiera') with curved steel handle and spout, the lid with wood knop (d-e). In use the caldaietta or boiler is filled with water and the filter with coffee inserted, resting on two flanges inside the boiler. The coffee-pot with spout is placed upside down over it and placed on the stove. When the water in the boiler starts to boil, the coffee maker is removed from the heat and turned upside down to start the filtering process. The coffee-pot is now the right way up and the coffee can be served with the coffee maker assembled, or with the boiler removed and the lid placed on the coffee-pot. Unmarked.
- Production date
- 1979-1987 (designed)
- Dimensions
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Diameter: 10.70 centimetres (base of both pots)
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Diameter: 7.10 centimetres (filter)
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Diameter: 8.30 centimetres (lid (e))
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Height: 12.80 centimetres (boiler (a))
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Height: 24.50 centimetres (both pots)
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Height: 12.40 centimetres (filter with microfilter)
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Height: 12.10 centimetres (filter)
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Height: 12.70 centimetres (pot (d))
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Width: 20.70 centimetres (boiler (a) max with handle)
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Width: 21.50 centimetres (coffee-pot (d) handle to spout)
- $Inscriptions
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- Curator's comments
- Known as the 'Neapolitan' coffee maker, this pot was inspired by traditional Neapolitan models, known as the Neapolitan 'flip' coffee pot. It consists of a lower pot filled with water, a filter in the middle with finely-ground coffee, and a second pot placed upside down on the top. When the water boils the entire three-part coffee maker is flipped over to allow the water to filter throuigh the coffee grounds. Once the water has dripped through the grounds the water-boiling and filter sections are removed and the coffee is served from the remaining pot.
For Dalisi's re-interpretation for Alessi, see Patrizia Scarzella, 'Steel & Style. The Story of Alessi Household Ware', Milan 1987, pp. 156-159, illustrating some of the two hundred models conceived by Dalisi in the course of his lengthy research, which ran from 1979 to 1987 and was the longest period for the development of a product in the history of the Alessi company. The research encompassed not only the many prototypes, most of which were unsuitable for mass production, but also a vast survey of the way in which the coffee maker was used and how coffee was perceived in the Neapolitan region, as well as a series of gigantic theatrical figurative coffee-pots in papier maché and metal, among them a figure of Pulcinella, a stock character in Neapolitan puppetry. Alberto Alessi wrote of the process: 'Bit by bit, with a forced but - I believe - effective osmosis between the two worlds of crafts and industry, our Neapolitan coffee maker was born.' ('Alessi. The Design Factory', London 1994, p. 56).
For an example of a traditional Neapolitan 'flip' coffee pot, see 2017,8007.1.a-d.
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
2016-2017: 12 November - 22 January, BM, G90a, 'Modern design and graphics: a selection of objects and prints from post-war Europe in the British Museum'
- Acquisition date
- 2014
- Department
- Britain, Europe and Prehistory
- Registration number
- 2014,8024.517.a-e
