Chase Brass & Copper logo. Image from a 1934 advertisement.

No 1930s hostess would consider her service set complete without a coffee set. And the Chase Specialty line offered several coffee and tea sets from 1932 – 1942.

Diplomat Coffee Set

1932 – 1941

Here is an aid to brilliant entertaining. Of marked individuality in the design by Von Nessen, the coffee pot, sugar and creamer come in polished chromium or polished copper with white tinned lining inside. The handles and knobs are of composition in a highly polished black finish. – 1933 Chase Catalog.

Walter Von Nessen’s 1933 Diplomat Coffee Service. From the collection of the author.

Shortly after the Chase Specialty line began, their first coffee set hit the shelves in 1932. A Walter Von Nessen (1889 – 1943) design, the Diplomat Coffee Set is one of the most sought after Chase sets. Legend has it that Von Nessen’s inspiration for the set came when he spotted some fluted pipes lying around the Chase plant. Out of this came the Diplomat Coffee service, the most elegant of the Chase coffee set.

Diplomat Sugar and Creamer. From the collection of the author.

At the introduction of the set in 1932 the handles on the coffee pot and creamer were wood. But soon thereafter they were changed to black Bakelite.

The three piece Diplomat Coffee Set. From the collection of the author.

Retailing at a hefty $15.00 ($316.51 in 2021) for the three piece set, it must have sold well. The Diplomat Coffee Set remained an inventory item until 1941. But even with its nine year production life, this set is not easy to find today and will cost a collector a fair bit of change to acquire one. And sets in copper are even harder to find than the chrome ones.

Breakfast Set

1934 – 1939

The Gerths designed this three-piece set of semi-spherical design, one of the most popular of Chase Specialities. The brilliance of the highly polished sugar bowl and creamer is set off by the black handles. An etched design decorates the tray. – 1934 Chase Catalog.

Gerth & Gerth’s Breakfast Set for the Specialty Line. From the collection of the author.

The Breakfast Set with its semi-spherical shape and “Saturn Ring” was the modern way to serve sugar and cream in the mid-1930s. And with a retail price of $3.00 in 1934 ($61.92 in 2021) this must have been a popular wedding, house warming or hostess gift, judging how many can be found in flea markets and antique malls today. Starting in 1937 the set was available with white as well as the black handles.

Individual Coffee Set

1936 – 1942

This charming three-piece set will appeal strongly to those who breakfast in bed and it is a convenience for the invalid. The cream pitcher fits on top of the coffee pot, and the sugar bowl fits on the pitcher, saving space on the serving tray. – 1942 Chase Catalog.

Russel Wright’s Individual Coffee Set, stacked. From the collection of the author.

Russel Wright, designed pieces for convenience and ease of living, and this set certainly provides that. Everything is here for a single cup of morning coffee, with the sugar bowl and creamer stacked on top of the coffee container. Retailing for a reasonable $3.00 in 1942 ($50.91 in 2021) the Individual Coffee Set had a relatively long production life. But it is not too easily found today at prices lower than $50.00 and they often go for over $100.00. Unlike the white plastic used on the Coronet and Comet Coffee Sets the Individual Coffee Set features handles and a knob made of Catalin. These have darkened to a pleasing butterscotch color but were white when new.

The Individual Coffee Set’s components unstacked. From the collection of the author.

One thing to note when buying an Individual Breakfast Set, is to check for stress splits on the sides of the components. These cracks will definitely decrease its value.

Sugar Sphere

1937 – 1941

Sphere Pitcher

1937 – 1939

Russel Wright’s Sugar Sphere and Sphere Pitcher. From the collection of the author.

Here are two pieces that are not that easy to find in today’s collector’s market and not designed by Walter Von Nessen, but by Russel Wright. These pieces are typical of Wright’s Chase aesthetic using spherical shapes, like his cocktail ball or corn and pancake set. The Sphere pitcher features a ribbed handle made of Catalin.

Comet Coffee Maker Service

1938 – 1942

The “Comet” is a beautifully designed coffee set consisting of an electric percolating coffee maker, and a matching sugar and creamer and tray. The shape of the electric coffee maker is a pleasing change from the ordinary cylinder types. The quick-heating Coffee Maker starts the coffee “perking” a few seconds after it is plugged in. It holds about 7 cupfuls, and it makes its full capacity of coffee in about 12 minutes. – 1942 Chase Catalog.

Chase Comet Coffee Service. From the collection of the author.

A complete Comet Coffee service (Coffee pot, sugar & creamer and tray) retailed in 1942 for $14.50 ($246.05 in 2021). While costly, it was on the more reasonable side of expensive. The Comet Coffee pot as a stand alone or the entire set seems to have been popular, judging by the relative ease it is to find it in antique stores, flea markets and online today. The spherical coffee pot is another Von Nessen creation. The white plastic handle is striking against the chrome and the flared base and the etched lines along the bottom half gives the coffee pot a streamlined appearance. The entire set comprised  of the coffee pot, the Kent Sugar and Creamer and the Ring Tray. The Ring Tray, designed by Harry Laylon (1911 – 1997), introduced in 1936 stayed in their inventory to the end of the line. There is no designer credited for the Kent Sugar and Creamer (1938 – 1942). They match the Comet Coffee pot exactly. It is possible that Chase used an in house employee to design them to complete the set.

Comet Tea Kettle

1938 – 1942

Along with the Comet Coffee Pot, Chase also offered two versions of the Comet Tea Kettle, an electric one and a standard one. The tea kettle had the same style etched lines around the lower half of its body, but no flared base. Its white, plastic handle arched over the top of the pot, unlike the coffee pot’s side handle.

Electric Comet Kettle with the Spherical Creamer and Sugar Shaker. From the collection of the author.

Coronet Coffee Service

1938 – 1942

Chase Coronet Coffee Urn and Kent Sugar and Creamer. From the collection of the author.

When many cups of coffee are needed for meals, buffet parties, bridge or club meetings, this beautiful percolating urn will make 18 cupfuls. And with the percolating basket removed, it will store an additional 7 cupfuls, and server 25 people. The urn has a well-type heating unit that gives “high heat” for making coffee, and “low heat” for keeping it piping hot, so it can be served at any time later during the party. A switch is simply tripped to change from one heat to the other.  – 1942 Chase Catalog.

Eliel Saarinen Tea Urn loaned to the Cooper Hewitt from the Dallas Museum of Art for 2017 Jazz Age Exhibit. Image from cooperhewitt.org.

It seems that some of Von Nessen’s design for the Coronet Coffee Urn derived from Eliel Saarinen’s Tea Urn of 1934. Both feature spherical containers and side handles, but Von Nessen made his design practical and easy to mass produce. Non tarnishing chrome replaced the silver plate and a solid fluted base, similar in look to the Diplomat Coffee set, was used instead of a vented one. And the Coronet Coffee Urn featured an electrical heating unit and not an open flame alcohol burner.

Complete Chase Coronet Coffee Service, with urn, sugar and creamer and tray. Photo from the Art Institute of Chicago.

A complete Coronet Coffee Service featured the urn, the Kent Sugar and Creamer and the Festivity Tray. The Festivity Tray, a Harry Laylon, design joined the Chase line in 1937. While Walter Von Nessen’s Coronet Coffee Urn and Kent Sugar and Cream became available in 1938. These pieces stayed in production until the World War II brought and end to the Chase Specialty Line.

At a retail price of $27.95 in 1938 ($543.76 in 2021), this set was expensive. The urn alone cost $19.95 ($388.12 in 2021). But it must of sold fairly well, judging how many seem to be in the collector’s market and in museum collections today. One thing to be aware of when buying one today are cracks in the plastic base. These stress fractures were probably caused by heat. The cracks do not detract from the value unless there are many of them or if they are severe.

Chase Coronet Coffee Urn, with heat stress crack in the plastic base. From the collection of the author.

These sets certainly brightened many a breakfast, tea time or dinner party during the dark days of the depression. And they certainly add a nice touch to a present day Art Deco style kitchen or  dining room.

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

SOURCES

The Complete Chase – Donald-Brian Johnson & Leslie Piña

The Chase Era 1933 and 1942 Catalogs of the Chase Brass & Copper Co. – Donald-Brian Johnson & Leslie Piña

Chase Catalogs 1934 and 1935 Catalogs – Donald-Brian Johnson & Leslie Piña

Art Deco Chrome Book 2: A Collector’s Guide Industrial Design in the Chase Era – Richard J. Kilbride