Stainless steel was introduced to the domestic kitchen during the 1920s largely for cutlery, but its use became widespread after World War II, when its low cost, highly polished silvery surface, and durability made it popular for both cooking and informal dining. No designer has used this metal with greater originality or elegance than Roberto Sambonet, who here explores the possibilities of standardizing cookwares in mathematically derived modular elements that form different configurations in several combinations. Four deep pots and four shallow ones of corresponding diameters that can be used either as lids, pans, or trays, the Center Line pieces nest compactly in a convenient arrangement of great formal beauty and decorative effect provided by the flaring segmental flanges used to lift and move the pots, the contrast of sizes, and the brilliant finish of the steel. Like other Italian designers, Sambonet here turns the efficient into the beautiful, adding artistic creativity to the refining process of calculation. Katherine B. Hiesinger, from Philadelphia Museum of Art: Handbook of the Collections (1995), p. 156.