Lot 345 Dα

This jug was Malewitsch's first pioneering step into modern design. The form was developed independently of historic predecessors, having been approached from a purely formal and geometric perspective rather than with the idea of fulfilling a specific function. He has thus created an object whose purpose as a teapot is apparent, but thoroughly secondary to its form. The piece is primarily intended to express the absolute geometric body symbolic of a new formal vocabulary. The workers in the factory where this piece was made named it "Locomotive" (cat. Fragile, p. 325).