Josef Hoffmann - Design: Online Auction New York Tuesday, February 7, 2023 | Phillips

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  • Provenance

    Lilli and Harry Klopper, Vienna, acquired circa 1914
    Thence by descent to the present owner

  • Literature

    Josef Hoffmann und die Wiener Werkstätte, exh. cat., The Tokushima Modern Art Museum, Tokushima, 1996, p. 69
    Der Preis der Schönheit: 100 Jahre Wiener Werkstätte, Ostfildern, 2003, p. 422

  • 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.

Property from a New York Collection

50

"Zigarettenkassette," model no. M 122

designed 1904, executed 1904-1910
Nickel silver.
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.

Estimate
$4,000 - 6,000 

Sold for $25,200

Contact Specialist

Benjamin Green
Associate Specialist
Associate Head of Sale
+1 917 207 9090
bgreen@phillips.com

Design: Online Auction

Online Auction 7 - 14 February 2023