Although the modern knife, fork, and spoon as we would recognize them today have been around for hundreds of years, it was the social revolutions of the 19th century that yielded the profusion of cutlery variations, many vestiges are still with us today, including the de rigueur 5-piece place setting that still dominates how flatware are manufactured and sold.

Drawn from the extensive flatware collection of Dung Ngo, this exhibition highlights the design development of flatware in the modern period, ranging from the 1920s to the present, including designs by Eliel Saarinen, Gio Ponti, and Achille Castiglioni.