This saucière resembles a calyx with two protuberant petals. In her design, the designer and metalsmith Chunghi Choo has carefully coordinated the vessel with a ladle (inv. no. 15543) in the shape of a stylized pistil. The two pieces thus belong inseparably together. Also as utensils, they can only fulfill their function together. Despite the obvious similarity between the saucière and ladle, however, the two pieces were made from different materials and techniques: the sauce boat is made from electroformed and silver-plated copper, the ladle from sterling silver. The Korean-American designer describes her approach to material, technique, and form as her “sense of play and the possibility of what the material could create” (Chunghi Choo, 2022). Despite belonging together, the different textures of the two pieces grant them visual and tactile autonomy.
The ensemble exists in at least one other variant from 1989 entitled Saucière and Ladle with Tray and is in the collection of the LongHouse Reserve in East Hampton, New York.