THE NURMESNIEMI POT
One of our favorite objects is Antti Nurmesniemi‘s pot from 1957. It came in two different sizes in the colours red, yellow, brown, blue, dark blue, white, selected by his wife Vuokko Eskolin-Nurmesniemi. Inside there was a filter for brewing coffee, resulting in many of the pots you find today having a brown interior.
The pot is enamelclad iron with a plastic handle and top. The handle is placed so as not to get too hot when kept on the stove. It was very modern for its time and still is.
Nurmesniemi was contacted by Wärtsilä, a engine maker and former owner of among others Arabia, to create a new product for the factories in Pietarsaari in Ostrobotnia, Finland as orders were at a low at the plant. The pot became a huge success and was manufactured well into the 1970’s. Nurmesniemi himself said this about it: “it is one of few household products of its time that bridged the increasing gap between city and countryside”
I remember a time when the pots were quite easily found a fleamarkets and other places but today they have almost um but disappeared. This is perhaps due to a increasing domestic interest into 50’s design but I also believe that it can be blamed on certain individuals shipping
them abroad to e.g. Japan, where pots can fetch up to 150 €. I wish we could protect our artifacts better and not be sorry in 50 years.
The pot has recently been relaunched in a series of 2500 pots in 10 colours. The web page is here. The price is 159 € (but you get a t-shirt as well)
Forthzine - Jonas Forth 