The Normandie Pitcher
- Gallery: Room 48
- Maker: Peter Müller-Munk
- Made in: Rome (New York)
- Date: 1935 (designed)
- Object type: pitcher
- Materials: brass; chromium
- Museum number: 1988,1103.1
- Museum: The British Museum
- Collection record: British Museum website
- Image © The Trustees of the British Museum, shared under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 licence.
Listen to the free audio guide
About this object
This is "The Normandie Pitcher," a striking example of 1930s modernist design. You're looking at a chromium-plated brass pitcher shaped like a tear-drop. The body was formed from a single sheet of metal, skillfully bent into shape. Notice how the handle is a flat strip that widens at the top to follow the rim's curve, blending function and form.
Designed by Peter Müller-Munk in 1935, the pitcher takes its shape from the smokestacks of the French ocean liner Normandie, a symbol of elegant streamlined design. This piece reflects a period when design embraced both industrial efficiency and artistic beauty.
You’ll find the maker’s mark, “REVERE ROME NY,” stamped on the base—showing it was produced in a New York factory. Müller-Munk believed in harmony between design and technique, and this pitcher is a wonderful representation of that ideal.
See it in person
The Normandie Pitcher is on display in Room 48 at the British Museum on Great Russell Street, Bloomsbury, London — free to enter. Choose British Museum on audioguide.london and take a photo of it to hear this free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
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