Courtesy of Nicholas Brawer Gallery, New York

A sterling silver cocktail shaker by Walker and Hall, of Sheffield, England, from 1934.

Richard Goodbody, courtesy of Nicholas Brawer Gallery

A pair of Asprey cocktail shakers from 1937 designed to look like a yacht’s lanterns.

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For the collector of Art Deco silver, line is everything. The best examples evoke the sinewy figure of the Jazz Age icon Josephine Baker and bold architectural masterpieces like the Chrysler Building.

"Deco collectors want cool design," says Philippe Garner, the international head of 20th-century decorative arts at Christie’s London. "Dramatic form seduces bidders." The type of item is less important, whether it be a piece of flatware, cocktail shaker, tea service or cigarette case.

The two most sought-after names in Deco silver are Jean-Émile Puiforcat — the person synonymous with French Art Deco — and the Danish master Georg Jensen. Puiforcat, with his technically precise and sometimes stark designs, was the more revolutionary of the two. Jensen preferred a softer contour that reflected shapes found in nature, and his work featured more ornamental elements.

Christie’s, Sotheby’s, Bonhams & Butterfields and Doyle New York all offer Art Deco silver objects throughout the year, in both dedicated silver and 20th-century decorative-arts sales. The auction record in the field, $240,000, belongs to a pair of 1919 Jensen candelabra sold at Christie’s New York in April 2006. More typically, objects bring between $1,500 and $20,000. "Pieces have to be pretty special to reach beyond that," says Garner.

Surprisingly, collectors disregard the traditional luster of sterling in favor of silver plate. The Depression pushed many makers to work in that less costly material, and they came up with some of the most inventive designs. The New York dealer Nicholas Brawer recently got $5,000 for a 1930s silver-plate cocktail shaker in the form of a rocket ship signed by London’s Garrard.

"You’ll never find another one like it," he says, "And the plate made no difference to this collector — he was buying it for the shape."

The material is secondary because collectors are usually not silver specialists. "I’m not aware of many people collecting Art Deco silver alone," says Christie’s Garner. "Buyers find it more important that a piece fits into a broader Art Deco collection."

Collectors also tend to be open-minded about country of origin. French and Scandinavian makers were the most innovative and prolific, but such American makers as Gorham and Kalo, as well as European houses like Wolfers Frères, in Belgium, and Asprey, in England, attract bids too.

"Good Tiffany from the early 1930s is absolutely fantastic," says Michael James, the founder of the San Francisco-based Silver Fund. Tiffany’s sleek Century flatware is among the most recognizable Deco patterns, and vintage examples go for about $100 per piece.

John Ward, a silver specialist at Sotheby’s New York, cites as particularly desirable pieces from Gorham made by the Jensen-trained Danish silversmith Erik Magnussen. "He crafted small bowls set on feet shaped like animals, and these can bring between $6,000 and $8,000," says Ward. "But you’d be lucky indeed to find one piece of his every few years." For fans of Art Deco’s line of beauty, it’s worth the wait.

"Shining Through" originally appeared in the November 2009 issue of Art+Auction. For a complete list of articles from this issue available on ARTINFO, see Art+Auction's November 2009 Table of Contents.