These playful and delicate assemblages of canned foodstuffs come courtesy of Erik Wåhlström and Daniel Carlsten to mark the birth of an enduring design classic. The patent for the tin can was first granted to British merchant Peter Durand 203 years ago on this day in 1810. Unfortunately, the can opener was not patented until 35 years later, so the contents were initially only accessible by use of a hammer and chisel or other such lumpen implements—and back then, the container was sealed with lead, which risked poisoning the food within. Yet Durand’s invention propelled society into a future of baked beans, soup and that most unglamorous of British wartime staples, Spam. Later came makeshift improvisations: tin lampshades, stationery holders and the tin-can telephone, or ‘lovers’ phone,’ which allowed users to talk across moderate distances and conduct clandestine, romantic affairs. It came to represent something vital, so much a part of the day-to-day that it inspired a creative movement when Andy Warhol famously made his pop art debut at Ferus Gallery, Los Angeles in 1962, with Campbell’s Soup Cans. The artist’s mother funded his early days by making and selling tin flowers that she recycled out of used cans. “The bigger the tin can the better, like the family size ones that peach halves come in,” he advised anyone wishing to follow her lead.