Who commissioned Salvador Dalí’s 1938 Lobster Telephone?

Edward James commissioned Salvador Dalí’s Lobster Telephone in 1938.

The object combines a functioning telephone with a plaster lobster placed over its receiver. Its unexpected pairing of an everyday communications device and a crustacean exemplifies the Surrealist interest in bringing unrelated objects together.

James was a wealthy British poet and patron who supported several Surrealist artists. He invited Dalí to create works for his home at West Dean in Sussex. Several versions of Lobster Telephone were made, using different telephone colours and lobster finishes.

The work is often described as a sculpture or assemblage, but it also remains a usable telephone in its original form. It should not be confused with Dalí’s Mae West Lips Sofa, another object associated with Edward James and Surrealist interiors.