Josef Hoffmann - Design Vienna and the Wiener Werkstätte New York Thursday, March 3, 2011 | Phillips

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  • Provenance

    Cabaret Fledermaus, Vienna

  • Literature

    Michael Huey, ed., Viennese Silver: Modern Design 1780-1918, Ostfildern-Ruit, 2003, p. 136, cat. no. 74; Christian Brandstätter, Wonderful Wiener Werkstatte: Design in Vienna 1903-1932, Vienna, 2003, p. 104 for a similar example

  • Catalogue Essay

    Of the six covered platters made for the Cabaret Fledermaus, the present example is one of only two produced in this size.
    Before the gloom of war settled on Vienna, the basement at Kärtner Strasse 33 fluttered with music, conversation, and good cheer. Opened in 1907 by textile heir Fritz Waerndorfer, the Cabaret Fledermaus was enlivened by personalities on and off the stage. A founding partner of the Wiener Werkstätte, Waerndorfer commissioned its many artists to design and furnish the Fledermaus, including Josef Hoffmann, Gustav Klimt, Eduard Josef Wimmer-Wisgrill, and Carl Otto Czeschka, among others. Every inch of the Fledermaus simmered with influence, from forks and chairs to the bill of fare. Adding to the upbeat feeling of gemütlichkeit, Bertold Löffler and Michael Powolny lined the lower walls with more than 7,000 Majolica tiles. Pipers and putti cajoled with vintners and roosters, an animated menagerie held in ordered disorder above the checkerboard floor. "Autumn," a single porcelain putto by Michael Powolny, stood on a plinth by the exit, its arms clutching a cluster of ripe grapes - a promise of wine and a reminder, perhaps, that every summer ends. The Cabaret Fledermaus closed in 1913.

     

41

Very rare large covered platter, model no. M 830, for the Cabaret Fledermaus, Vienna

ca. 1907

Silver-plated alpaca.

8 × 14 3/8 × 9 5/8 in. (20.3 × 36.5 × 24.4 cm.)

Executed by Wenzel Bachmann & Co. for the Wiener Werkstätte, Austria. Outside edge of dish impressed with "WW."

Estimate
$25,000 - 35,000 

Sold for $18,750

Design Vienna and the Wiener Werkstätte

3 March 2011
New York