Elegant Vintage Miniature Cocktail Whisk

"It was so singular and unusual — we simply had to have it," Patricia and Walter recall, and one look at this beautiful cocktail whisk makes the impulse entirely understandable.

A long straight stem topped with a small domed finial opens at its lower half into a delicate cage of looped wire tines, gathered and tied at the waist with a tiny bow — a detail so considered it borders on the extravagant. Patricia and Walter speculate that it may have been designed for beating egg whites, or for stirring hot chocolate, but what drew them to it above all was its elegance.

It would sit beautifully on a drinks tray, propped in a small glass or laid beside a cup of hot chocolate at a winter table. For anyone who collects objects that live at the intersection of the useful and the beautiful, this is exactly that — a piece whose purpose is almost beside the point.