In 1930, just two years before the dissolution of the Wiener Werkstätte, the German design magazine Deutsche Kunst und Dekoration published an article titled “New Metalwork by Josef Hoffmann” which included illustrations of works with a similar visual vocabulary to the present selection. Praising Hoffmann’s work, the author said, “[The works] are clear and regular in structure - but without lacking that highly personal grace that was Hoffmann's touch. This grace is achieved with subtle means: it lies in the proportion, in the slight deviations from symmetry, and the mathematical regularity, as well as in the occasional use of curved profiles.” The present selection of works by Josef Hoffmann illustrate the designer’s expert manipulation of brass and silver as well as his tempered yet expressive style.
“Only that which strives for perfection and eternal beauty can be of estimable duration.”
—Josef HoffmannHoffmann designed metalworks for the Wiener Werkstätte since its founding in 1903 and, in fact, the metal workshop was the first division of the workshop to operate. Over the course of nearly three decades, Hoffmann created works in metal including flatware, holloware, and functional pieces with perforated, square-patterned decorations called gitterwerk (latticework).
Drawing of vase, model no. M 3067/M va 6, circa 1923. 
Drawing of "Aufsatz" centerpiece, model no. M sh 17, circa 1924. 
Drawing of "Brotkorb," model no. S 4453, circa 1920. -
Drawing of vase, model no. M 3067/M va 6, circa 1923. -
Drawing of "Aufsatz" centerpiece, model no. M sh 17, circa 1924.
Whereas Hoffmann’s earlier works are often rigorously geometric in form and decoration, his works became more expressive and opulent during the 1920s, perhaps due to the influence of designer Dagobert Peche who joined the firm in 1915 and introduced a certain baroque extravagance to the workshop’s aesthetic. During this period, the designs of the workshop were being sold across Europe and the United States, with a showroom on Fifth Avenue in New York that opened in 1921. The present aufsatz (centerpiece in German) exemplifies this tendency through the two scroll-shaped handles. These pieces express the glamour and opulence of the period while remaining true to Hoffman’s rational control of proportion and form.
Provenance
Sotheby's, New York, "Important 20th Century Design," December 18, 2004, lot 615
Acquired from the above by the present ownerLiterature
Werner J. Schweiger, Wiener Werkstätte: Design in Vienna, 1903-1932, New York, 1984, p. 70
Peter Noever ed., Josef Hoffmann Designs, exh. cat., Austrian Museum of Applied Arts, Vienna, 1992, pp. 110, 172
Gabriele Fahr-Becker, Wiener Werkstätte 1903-1932, Cologne, 2003, p. 165
Peter Noever, ed., Yearning for Beauty: The Wiener Werkstätte and the Stoclet House, Ostfildern, 2006, p. 330Catalogue 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. 12059-9.
Property from a Private South Carolina Collection
80
"Aufsatz" centerpiece, model no. M sh 17
designed 1924, executed 1925-1931
Brass.
7 1/2 in. (19.1 cm) high
Executed by the Wiener Werkstätte, Vienna, Austria. Lip impressed with artist’s monogram, WIENER/WERK/STÄTTE, and MADE/IN/AUSTRIA.
Estimate
$10,000 - 15,000
Sold for $15,120
Benjamin Green
Associate Specialist
Associate Head of Sale
bgreen@phillips.com
+1 917 207 9090
Design
New York Auction 7 December 2022
13
This lot is no longer available.
