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One extremely murky area of Russel Wright's history is his early contract work. Yorkville was a small company producing spun aluminum objects around the same time that Russel Wright Associates was doing similar work. Where the story gets interesting, though, is a strange crossover of design shapes between the two companies. Several known Russel Wright designs were either contracted to Yorkville at some point, or they stole Wright's shapes for their own production line.
One major problem in solving this puzzle is that virtually nothing is known about Yorkville as a company. There are two main hypothesis that could lead to some answers. One is the possibility that the company was based in Yorkville, Wisconsin. This might call for my making a trip to southeastern Wisconsin sometime this fall. If the company was indeed located there, I hopefully will be able to find some information at the local historical society (or better yet, through an old employee). The second possibility is that Yorkville refers to the neighborhood in New York, just blocks from Wright's studios. This would be especially intriguing, and may point more directly at a collaboration between the two companies.
Update, 10.03.08 — Unfortunately this is definitely not a Russel Wright design. On page 4 of the Winter 1946-Spring 1947 issue of Walker Art Center's Everyday Art Quarterly, in an article entitled "Useful Gifts for the Home", our ice bucket is pictured along with a similar smaller model, also by Yorkville. Its caption reads as follows:
"Two spin aluminum ice cube containers. Tall one has earthenware insert, may be used as champagne cooler. $19.50. Low model is insulated with glass wool. $13.95. Both have polished hardwood covers. mfr. Yorkville Craftsmen; ldr. Thiss, Boutell."
This is a treasure trove of information! First off, $19.50 in 1946/7 is about $195.00 today. This wasn't a cheap cooler! Better yet, we now also know the lead designers of the buckets: Thiss and Boutell. I need to do some further research about these two, but I suspect that they were staff designers at Yorkville. I'll add details to this story as I learn more.
Found on August 09, 2005 in Hopkins, MN.
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