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Spruce up your dining table with the best cutlery sets
These designer cutlery sets – from iconic classics to contemporary collections – look good whatever’s on the menu
Cutlery enjoys a uniquely intimate relationship with the body, challenging the world’s best designers to take their discipline back to its essential principles of line, form and feel. We’ve laid the table with their ultimate sets: future heirlooms to invest in, enjoy and pass down. Read on for our picks...
‘Outline’ by Maarten Baptist
‘Outline’ began life as the final project for Maarten Baptist’s studies at the Design Academy Eindhoven. Intent on capturing the personalities of his friends, he traced outlines of conventional cutlery, before bending them into distinct forms. Twenty years after ‘Outline’, kids of his original customers are now placing orders. Approx £190 for a 36-piece set, maartenbaptist.com
‘Conca’ by Gio Ponti
The great Italian architect and designer undertook an anthropological study of the way human habits determine the shape of these everyday tools and developed a precise design for each. Sambonet has made his rationalist principles concrete in the ‘Conca’ cutlery set. The knife’s short blade and the fork’s small prongs and concave shape are all determined by Ponti’s insight into how people really eat. £79.90 for a four-piece set sambonet.com
‘Flint’ by Aaron Probyn
Aaron Probyn’s five-piece ‘Flint’ cutlery set is the product of many years of experimentation. The result is the perfect balance of form and function; the pieces are minimal in style, tactile and well-weighted. A gentle radius to the underside of the handle allows each to sit comfortably in the hand. £35 for a five-piece set, aaronprobyn.com
‘Nuovo Milano’ by Ettore Sottsass and Alberto Gozzi
Ettore Sottsass’ stainless steel range, called ‘Nuovo Milano’, which he designed with Alberto Gozzi in 1987, stemmed from his desire to create tableware as ‘smooth as an ocean rock’. It was recognised with the XVIth Compasso d’Oro industrial design award in 1991. £415 for a 24-piece set, uk.alessi.com
‘Passe-partout’ by Vincent Van Duysen
The Belgian designer and Molteni & C creative director’s ‘Passe-partout’ collection for Serax derives its form from the architecture of monasteries. It’s an influence that might not be immediately apparent, but Van Duysen’s hushed inspiration underlies the classic simplicity of this timeless yet modern cutlery set. Approx £188 for a 24-piece set, serax.com
‘AJ’ by Arne Jacobsen
One of Denmark’s greatest architects, Jacobsen designed every aspect of the SAS Royal Hotel in Copenhagen, all the way down to the cutlery, which was manufactured by Georg Jensen. As strikingly modern and innovative today as when it first launched in the late 1950s, the ‘AJ’ set is the purest expression of design at its most functional. £292 for a 24-piece set, georgjensen.com
‘Wobbly’ by Michael Schoner
Amsterdam-based architect and designer Schoner’s ‘Wobbly’ cutlery set was designed for Fels’ Farm Shop exhibition, curated by Marco Campardo, Guan Lee and Luca Lo Pinto. The knife, fork and spoon are laser-cut from a stainless steel tube, then flattened by hand and shaped into concave forms using hardwood moulds. £240 for a 3-piece set, fels.world
‘Mono Ring’ by Peter Raacke
The cartoonish ‘Mono Ring’ captured the spirit of its time when it launched in 1962. The circle at the end of the handle allows it to be hung from a holder on a kitchen worktop. Approx £90, mono.de
‘Maya 2000’ by Tias Eckhoff
An industrial design pioneer and one of Norway’s most versatile product designers, Eckhoff created ‘Maya’, his first cutlery pattern, in 1962. Made for Stelton, it went on Phaidon’s list of the 999 best designs in the world as well as into MoMA and the V&A. Launched for the new century, ‘Maya 2000’ is longer and slimmer than its 1960s sister, to suit contemporary table settings. £396 for a 24-piece set, stelton.com
‘Occasional Object’ by Virgil Abloh
Virgil Abloh’s ‘Occasional Object’ collection deconstructs the classic mise en place, with a carabiner that fixes the knife, fork and spoon together, transforming cutlery into a personal accessory. There are 999 numbered sets, making this a truly collectable piece of design history from the visionary designer. £500 for a three-piece set, uk.alessi.com
‘Cutlery Project’ by Maarten Baas
Acclaimed Dutch designer Baas’s work is often described as theatrical, rebellious and witty, and the cutlery that he designed for Valerie Objects is all of these things (maybe more). Each piece has an almost childlike feel, like a sketch or fairytale made real, especially in the randomness of the knife’s serrated edge, which Baas imagined like a set of teeth. £450 for a 24-piece set, viaduct.co.uk
‘Flatware’ by Zaha Hadid for WMF
As much a work of art as a sublime piece of industrial design, this sculptural set by Zaha Hadid for German brand WMF can be found in museum collections around the world. It takes its fluid form from water and the organic shapes seen in nature, which also inspired many of the legendary Iraqi architect’s extraordinary buildings. Approx £1,164 for a five-piece set, maartenbaptist.com
‘Brutalist’, David Marshall
The renowned Scottish sculptor designed this ‘Brutalist’ set in the 1970s. Made in cast brass and stainless steel, each piece showcases Marshall’s signature use of contrasting metals. £3,916 for a 58-piece set, 1stdibs.com
‘Cutlery’ by John Pawson for When Objects Work
This set designed by the British architect for When Objects Work is made from stainless steel with a mirror finish. Each piece has the same handle, uniting the knife, fork and spoon in a beautifully restrained shared silhouette, while the fork’s three prongs nod to the simplicity of Georgian proportions. £517 for a 24-piece set, hauslondon.com
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