Taste

I've always believed it makes sense to pay for quality in those items you spend your time touching -- I have a particular fetish for cutlery, you may recall, and have waxed interminably about David Mellor's beautifully balanced and extraordinarily tactile modernist/minimalist eating irons.


For the past few... er... years, actually, I've been looking for some new glasses: everyday tumblers, to be precise. Being a bit of a minimalist at heart, I wanted some which were very, very simple. None of your distracting decoration; lightweight, thin-lipped, yet robust enough to be chucked in the dishwasher.


I'm pleased to be able to report that my search has now been successfully completed, with the purchase of some Kartio glasses, manufactured by Iittala to the design of the Finnish maestro Kaj Franck waaay back in 1958.


The Kartios are available in a range of colours, some of them rather striking, but I prefer the utterly clear.


They are delightful to hold, and as delightful for your lips to touch (and we all remember from our study of homunculi that our lips have more of those sensitive nerve endings than almost anywhere else, don't we?).


There are two basic sizes -- in case you're interested, I bought the larger.


For those who like a bit of fancy there is also a complementary ribbed range from Iittala (designed by Aino Aalto in 1932). Both types cost around £7 a piece.


What I find intriguing is how long it's taken me to find a design I really like. You'd have thought something as simple as an everyday drinking glass would be easy to source. How do so many designers get it so wrong?