Bas van Beek - Tea cup set (3) - Glass - ''Cup and Paste''

A set of three “Cup and Paste” cups and saucers by Dutch designer and artist Bas van Beek, designed in 2010 as the Museum Year Object for the National Glass Museum in Leerdam.

The design is a wonderful example of Van Beek’s way of working: intelligent, historically sharp, and not afraid of a little provocation. After the success of his “Royal Rip-Offs”, Van Beek was invited to create a new object for the Glass Museum. Instead of making something merely decorative, he went straight into the archive, that treasure cave where Dutch design history still keeps unfinished business.

For this project, Van Beek explored the history of pressed glass in Leerdam. He was especially intrigued by the quality and ambition of Dutch pressed glass from the late 1920s, a field that had largely disappeared from Dutch production decades later. When local mould production proved too expensive, Van Beek famously turned to the internet and arranged the production of the moulds through a factory in China, a very contemporary detour for an object rooted in early Dutch modernism.

The starting point for “Cup and Paste” was a group of sketches by H.P. Berlage that Van Beek found at the Netherlands Architecture Institute. These sketches were designs for pressed-glass objects intended for the Leerdam Glass Factory, but they were never produced. Using Berlage’s own mathematical system, Van Beek designed the corresponding saucer, the apparent missing link in Berlage’s glass plan. He then borrowed and “pasted” elements from other iconic Leerdam-related designs by Andries Copier and K.P.C. de Bazel to create the cup.

The result is not a copy, but a layered design object: part Berlage, part Copier, part De Bazel, part Van Beek. A little architectural collage in pressed glass.

The cups and saucers have a beautiful sculptural quality, with strong geometry, rhythmic relief and the unmistakable presence of Leerdam glass history. They sit somewhere between functional tableware and design commentary: elegant enough to use, interesting enough to collect.

A fine set for collectors of Dutch design, Leerdam glass, Berlage-related objects, contemporary design, or anyone who enjoys objects with a brain behind the beauty.

Condition: very good condition

Background note
“Cup and Paste” is based on unrealised Berlage sketches for pressed-glass objects for the Leerdam Glass Factory. Van Beek completed the idea by designing the missing saucer and combining Berlage’s formal system with elements from Copier and De Bazel. In the final object, original Leerdam characteristics remain visible, but with a distinctly contemporary twist.