Bird Whistling Kettle

Most kettles tell you the water has boiled by making a noise you have learned to ignore. This one sings, because there is a small bird sitting on the end of the spout.

The bird on Alessi's 9093 kettle is moulded in polyamide, the same plastic as the handle, and it sits directly over the spout so escaping steam has to pass through it. That is the whole mechanism. It means the note arrives the instant the water turns, rather than a minute later when somebody wanders back into the kitchen. Underneath, the kettle is 18/10 stainless steel, mirror polished, drawn into a wide cone that holds two litres. A magnetic steel disc is set into the base, which is what lets an induction hob grip a kettle otherwise made of a metal induction cannot see.

Michael Graves drew it in 1985, during the stretch when Alessi was handing kitchen objects to architects rather than product designers. Nothing has been changed since. Graves folded European art, American pop and shapes quoted from pre-Columbian cultures into one squat, symmetrical form, and the blue handle has been the standard colour throughout. The 9093 has been among the best-selling objects Alessi makes for four decades; in 2025 it turned forty. Alessi will engrave up to nine characters on the body, though that makes the kettle non-returnable, which is a reasonable price for putting your own name under a bird.