Shōwa-period Large Milk Can, Japan

This large stainless-steel milk can from Japan's Shōwa period is a nostalgic piece full of industrial style and the atmosphere of a farming era. Large milk cans like this were once indispensable everyday equipment in the Japanese dairy industry; as times changed, their rugged, sturdy and streamlined metal form has become a highly characterful decorative object in today's interior design. Shows signs of age and use, with natural dents in the body (displaying the authentic beauty of an industrial antique).

Price NT$ 1,500 ≈ US$ 47(Approximate amount; actual prices are in New Taiwan Dollars)
Dimensions
L 26.6 × W 26.6 × H 51.5 cm
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Features

1. A soulful piece of nostalgic industrial style

This milk can has perfect proportions and a smoothly tapering form. After decades of use the stainless steel has turned from a bright metallic shine to a composed, matte surface with a fine brushed grain. This genuine sense of age cannot be imitated by a reissued new piece, and it brings a solid weight of period feeling to a room.

2. A history told through the beauty of imperfection

The small dents scattered over the body, as shown in the photographs, are medals from its hard service on a farm. For collectors who love workwear style or wabi-sabi, these dents give the object life, so that it is no longer merely a cold industrial product but a carrier of culture with a story to tell.

3. An excellent visual height with practical function

A height of 51.5 cm falls into what interior arrangement calls the golden middle ground. The mouth is wide (15.5 cm), the structure stable and the base broad (26.6 cm), so it does not easily topple even when holding heavy dried arrangements or long branches and foliage such as bare twigs or fountain grass.

Specifications

Dimensions L 26.6 × W 26.6 × H 51.5 cm
Size Notes Height 51.5 cm / base width 26.6 cm / rim diameter 15.5 cm