Property from a New York Collection
50
Josef Hoffmann
"Zigarettenkassette," model no. M 122
- Estimate
- $4,000 - 6,000
$25,200
Lot Details
Nickel silver.
designed 1904, executed 1904-1910
1 5/8 x 5 1/2 x 4 in. (4.1 x 14 x 10.2 cm)
Executed by the Wiener Werkstätte, Vienna, Austria. Reverse impressed WIENER/WERK/STÄTTE.
Specialist
Full-Cataloguing
Catalogue Essay
Phillips would like to thank Dr. Christian Witt-Dörring for his assistance cataloguing the present lot.
The present model is recorded in the Wiener Werkstätte Archive of the MAK Vienna, under inventory number K.I. 12047-2.
The present cigarette box (zigarettenkassette) was given to Lilli Klopper by her husband Harry Klopper as a wedding gift circa 1914. Prominent fourth-generation Jewish citizens of Vienna, Harry served as a major in the Austrian army. When Lilli fled to Italy as a result of the Anschluss in 1938, the box remained in the couple’s home until Harry was likewise forced to leave his homeland, carrying the box in his backpack across the Alps into Switzerland and eventually to New York, where Lilli and Harry later reunited. The box has remained in the same family ever since.
This model is a particularly rare form, with just eighteen examples having been made from 1904 to 1910. The Museum of Applied Arts, Vienna holds another example, as well as a drawing for the model.
The present model is recorded in the Wiener Werkstätte Archive of the MAK Vienna, under inventory number K.I. 12047-2.
The present cigarette box (zigarettenkassette) was given to Lilli Klopper by her husband Harry Klopper as a wedding gift circa 1914. Prominent fourth-generation Jewish citizens of Vienna, Harry served as a major in the Austrian army. When Lilli fled to Italy as a result of the Anschluss in 1938, the box remained in the couple’s home until Harry was likewise forced to leave his homeland, carrying the box in his backpack across the Alps into Switzerland and eventually to New York, where Lilli and Harry later reunited. The box has remained in the same family ever since.
This model is a particularly rare form, with just eighteen examples having been made from 1904 to 1910. The Museum of Applied Arts, Vienna holds another example, as well as a drawing for the model.
Provenance
Literature