A 19-PIECE SILVER-PLATED COCKTAIL SHAKER COMPENDIUM IN THE FORM OF ZEPPELIN AIRSHIP, J.A. HENCKELS, SOLINGEN, CIRCA 1930

The Twinworks mark refers to the founding name of company in Germany, Zwilling (twin or Gemini). An equally complete example exists in the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum, New York (accession no. 2018-22-33). The cataloguer records: ‘By the late 1920s J.A. Henckels, a well-established German manufacturer of steel blades, had expanded into the giftwares market and established a storefront at 73 Fifth Avenue at 57th Streeet. As part of this expansion from pocket knives and razor blades, their traditional market, Henckels offered a smoker’s companion set and a travelling cocktail bar in the shape of an airplane, and this travelling cocktail bar in the shape of the Zeppelin Airship. This expansion in production to the novelties market was in keeping with many industrial manufacturers of this period who aimed to raise their revenue with a greater range of goods that would appeal to the consumer market…During prohibition drinking accessories often hid their function, taking on playful new designs including cocktail shakers in the shape of skyscrapers and penguins…This popular form combines the increasing vogue for cocktails, air travel and the popularization of industrial design for domestic use that evolved in the 1920s, making it a visual encyclopedia of Jazz Age design’.