Frank Perry shakes the hand of Mansion House Curator Tony Wonderley at the opening of a new exhibit paying tribute to Perry’s design work at Oneida Ltd.
(Oneida, NY) A recently installed exhibit at the Oneida Community Mansion House pays tribute to Frank Perry, the creator of more than 100 silverware patterns at Oneida Ltd. ranging from the archetypal Colonial design, Paul Revere, to classic Baroque offerings such as Michelangelo and Botticelli.
Highlighted is the importance of Paul Revere (1958), an elegant, simple style which powered Oneida’s successful changeover to stainless steel. The display also stresses the impact of South Seas (1954), a pattern so popular it rejuvenated the company’s traditional line of silver-plated ware. Visitors can examine several original design drawings and heft examples of Perry-designed flatware in plate, sterling, and stainless.
The exhibit includes magazine advertising that promoted Perry’s South Seas in the mid-1950s and First Frost in the mid-1960s. Of note is an ad campaign of the late 1950s in which Bob Hope, Art Linkletter, and John Cameron Swaze happily endorsed Perry’s “asymmetric floral” look in Flower Lane, Silver Rose, and Young Love.
Perry’s daughter, Maria Skinner, installed the exhibit curated by Tony Wonderley. Don Cornue designed the text panels for the exhibit which will be up through June, 2014.
The Oneida Community Mansion House is located at 170 Kenwood Ave., Oneida.
For information, call 315-363-0745 or visit www.oneidacommunity.org.