Creamer, from a Coffee and Tea Service

In 1914, the American regionalist painter Grant Wood and Kristopher Haga, a Norwegian silversmith, both students at the Kalo metalware shops in Chicago formed the Volund Craft Shops in Park Ridge, Illinois. The enterprise, named for the Norwegian god of silversmithing, only lasted eighteen months due to insufficient funds. The shops produced small gold and silver items such as jewelry, boxes, and buckles. Hollow ware forms such as this coffee and tea set were rare for the shop and it is among the most ambitious productions ever undertaken by Wood and Haga.