Kaj Franck 2744 Tumblers in 'Toive' Gift Box

A boxed set of ten model 2744 glasses, designed by Kaj Franck for Nuutajärvi Notsjö, Finland, in 1953, presented in their original 'Toive' (Wish) gift box, produced in 1954.

Deceptively simple, the 2744 'Kartio' (Cone) tumbler was conceived as a cocktail glass and designed to stack neatly one inside another.[1] Here, ten large glasses, measuring approximately 8 x 8 cm each, form a particularly joyful group: two each in purple, turquoise and blue, three in green and a single contrasting red.

The solitary red glass is particularly interesting. Nuutajärvi's brilliant red glass was produced using gold, making it considerably more expensive to manufacture than other colours. Consequently, red was used more sparingly and surviving examples are less commonly encountered today. Within this set, its scarcity only heightens its effect: a single flash of brilliant red amongst the cooler greens, blues, turquoise and purple.

The glasses are housed in their original 'Toive' (Wish) box, whose wonderfully jazzy graphic design was also created by Franck. Colourful overlapping conical glasses tumble and float across its surface in a playful, almost surreal arrangement, making the packaging feel every bit as modern as the glassware within.

Historically, the 'Toive' gift set was sold with only six glasses. While it is impossible to know whether the original owner purchased all ten of these glasses at the same time, it is lovely to imagine the parties they have enjoyed together in the seventy-odd years since.

[1] It should be noted that the name 'Kartio' did not come into use until 1970.