Aluminum was discovered in 1845 and for a few years was valued as and used as a fine precious metal. In 1886, all that changed. Electricity had made the extraction process quick and inexpensive and aluminum became everyman's metal. Designers from all styles loved it. The arts and crafts people made tree branch handles, hand hammered utilitarian pieces, and placed decorated sheets on wood furniture; the art nouveau group swirled it, vined it and flowered it; the deco crowd loved the simple angles and curves easily obtained, and the matte to shiny surface options especially for dining, cocktail and entertaining pieces; the modernist and bauhaus designers jumped on it creating tubular furniture and solid pieces in waves or with sharp angles. Barclay McClelland was producing colored "spun" aluminum decorative serving pieces before WWII. The war slowed down the decorative and housware production, but after the war, the new colored ware with smooth or brushed surfaces became very popular. Granted there are some very generic aluminum pieces, especially those produced during the depression as a poor man's replacement for silver. But there are some truly fantastic pieces also, highlights of their particular design period from the late 1800's to the present.
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