Slovak National Gallery and Slovak Design Center, Bratislava [Slovenská národná galéria / Slovenské centrum dizajnu]

Cutlery set no. 58, also known as the Brussels set, was designed by Ján Čalovka (1936–2011) for Sandrik, a Slovak factory in Dolné Hámre that had produced metal tableware since the late nineteenth century. Originally designed for Expo ‘58, it was one of his first projects as a freshly appointed designer at the plant, one of the few in Slovakia to establish a bridge between designers and manufacturers. Light, restrained, and organically modelled, this cutlery set was quite different from other Czechoslovak production at the time. Although socialist retailers disliked it at first, finding it ‘unaesthetic’, this cutlery enjoyed great public demand and saw continuous production for fifty years. A total of forty million pieces were manufactured, and it became the most widely used cutlery in the former Czechoslovakia.
In the collections of Slovak National Gallery and Slovak Museum of Design, this cutlery set stands out as an important example of a progressive and timeless mass- produced object, one that greatly enhanced both private and public dining culture in the former Czechoslovakia.