If you had asked me, before June 23rd, if I knew who George Switzer was I would have replied no. If you had also asked me if I had ever heard of Micarta, I would have said what’s that? In just two days (it’s June 25th as I start to write this), I now know who George Switzer was and what Micarta is. Now you maybe asking, how did I come into such knowledge or perhaps more accurately, why would I care? Well on Sunday June 23rd, Chris and I went to the Golden Nugget Flea Market. Past readers will know that this is a favorite flea market of ours. Anyway, a vendor had on his table a striking orange and black tray with an aluminum frame. In the center of the tray is a stylized sail boat, moon and star of dyed aluminum embedded in a black band. Two strips of anodized aluminum separate the black band from the orange. It easily caught my eye and after Chris negotiated with the seller to bundle the tray with a Manning-Bowman chrome powder box we got both items for a very good price. I would learn how good the deal was a little later that morning.

The 1933 Nocturne Micarta tray, designed by George Switzer for Westinghouse. From the author’s collection.

In the car on the way home, I Googled “Art Deco black and orange tray with sail boat”.  One of the results was a 1stdibs.com dealer who is selling the tray and described it as being designed by George Switzer for Westinghouse. Now I was able to dig deeper into this tray’s history. I also learned that Switzer designed five other Micarta trays for Westinghouse in 1932. So now I wanted to find out exactly what was Micarta.

Micarta

Under pressure and high heat a combination of linen, canvas, paper, fiberglass and other fabrics, creates a laminate that Westinghouse branded as Micarta.

When introduced in the early 1910s, Micarta’s usage was for electrical equipment. An article in Machinery described the new material:

MICARTA – A SUBSTITUTE FOR FIBER, RAWHIDE, HARD RUBBER, ETC.

A remarkable new material to take the place of hard fiber, glass, hard rubber, molded compounds, etc. has been developed by the Westinghouse Electrical and Mfg, Co, East Pittsburg, Pa. The material, which is known as “Micarta” is used for brush holder insulation, gear blanks, conduit for automobile wiring, for arc shields in circuit-breakers.

Micarta is a hard, tan colored material having a mechanical strength about fifty per cent greater than hard fiber. Micarta is not brittle and will not warp, expand or shrink with age or exposure to the weather but takes a high polish, presenting a finished appearance. 

Machinery, August, 1913, Pg. 942

To expand the market for Micarta, Westinghouse developed new uses for Micarta by the late 1920’s. They began manufacturing it in a variety of colors and patterns, such as wood grain or marble, making it perfect for wall panelling.

Pages 6 & 7 from an early 1930’s Westinghouse booklet showing the many decorative uses of Micarta. Image from the Internet Archive.

George Switzer

George Switzer (1900 – 1940). Photo from the New York Times, October 9, 1940.

In 1932, Westinghouse thought Micarta would be a perfect material for decorative trays. They contracted industrial designer George Switzer to design a series of trays for the company. Although mostly forgotten today (he doesn’t even have a Wikipedia entry), in the 1930’s Switzer was a well known as Gilbert Rohde, Donald Deskey and Henry Dreyfuss.

Born in Plymouth, Indiana on March 6, 1900, Switzer graduated with honors from the University of Illinois. In Chicago, after college, he found employment with the advertising firm Wasey & Co. In two years he left to go work for Young & Rubicam in New York. This led to his designing everything from envelope stickers, messengers’ uniforms and delivery trucks for Kurt H. Volk, Inc., typographers. This work established his name and in 1929 Switzer set out on his own opening his own designing and consulting firm. He produced designs for sixty-five companies encompassing all sorts of things including letter heads, sausage labels and a Roll-Royce car body. In 1937, against 12,000 other entries he won two of the three awards in the “All America Package Competition” with his modernistic package designs for  the Eagle Pencil Company and the Geo. A. Hormel Company.

In 1940, Switzer underwent an operation for mastoiditis. While recuperating at his cousin’s home in Prattsville, New York, he died suddenly in the early morning hours of October 8th at the age of forty. His body is interred at the Oak Hill Cemetery,  Plymouth, Indiana, his hometown.

Westinghouse Micarta Trays

Looking for new uses for Micarta, Westinghouse approached Switzer. In 1932 he designed five modernistic, Micarta trays for the company. Retailing for around $5.00, these trays were available in finer stores by the 1932 Christmas season.

Westinghouse Micarta logo stamped into the back of the 1932 trays. Image from Decaso.com

Christmas 1932 men’s gift suggestions from Harper’s Bazaar. Under the gadgets section is the striped Micarta tray for $5.00 available at Bonwit Tellers. Magazine page from ProQuest.com

Walter Rendell Storey in his October 30, 1932, New York Times Sunday Magazine article on interior design had this to say of these new trays:

New trays of diverse and interesting kinds have recently appeared in response to a growing  consciousness of their varied uses and decorative possibilities. Some of the latest ones are combinations of wood and metal; others are synthetic compounds immune to cigarette burns and beverage stains. 

Of the new trays, perhaps the most striking is a series of beverage trays with designs developed in thin sheets of varied-hued aluminum inlaid on a glossy black ground. The motifs have been developed in a contemporary manner; there is one entitled “Dynamic,” which the designer, George Switzer, has interpreted by a stylized airplane. The traditional theme, “Nocturne,” has a sail boat beneath a yellow crescent moon with the deep-green water lighted by a streak of vermilion. For the period room the designer has created a most effective arrangement of empire motifs, namely, the arrow, star and laurel wreath of victory. These trays are stamped out from under enormous pressure from a material originally developed for insulating electric light switches. 

New York Times, Sunday Magazine, October 30, 1932, Pgs. 12 & 15.

In 1933 Switzer modified the Nocturne tray. A frame of aluminum, with handles, encompassed bands of orange and black Micarta. A slight rearrangement of the moon and star was another difference on this tray. For the 1933 Christmas season Westinghouse offered this tray as a special promotional item. When buying another Westinghouse product at full price, the Nocturne could be yours for just one dollar ($20.00 in 2019).

Westinghouse 1933 Christmas advertisement, featuring the $1.00 Nocturne tray promotion. Ad from the New York Herald-Tribune, December 10, 1933, Pg. SM15

The above ad mentions the “Stunning $3.95 Micarta tray a gorgeous Christmas Gift for only $1.00”. I have yet to find evidence of this tray being sold  anytime earlier in the year. It appears it was only used for the Christmas promotion. And, if that is the case, such a short production life explains its rarity today.

As I mentioned earlier in the post, while Googling for info about the tray, I found two selling on line. One on ebay and the other from a high end antique store specializing in Art Deco items. Both are selling for over $1,100.00.

The Nocturne has even become part of the permanent collections at the Carnegie Museum of Art and the Yale University Art Gallery.

1933 Nocturne Tray, Yale University Art Gallery. Photograph from artgallery.yale.edu.

So now that I have the 1933 tray, I want to get the five 1932 trays. I’ll keep you posted on my progress.

Anthony & Chris (The Freakin’, Tiquen’ Guys)