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Lot 672
A RARE AND IMPORTANT JOSEF HOFFMANN FOR WIENER WERKSTÄTTE SILVER AND IVORY DINNER BELL, AUSTRIA, CIRCA 1913. Of domed fluted tulip form with slender elongated silver stem terminating with an egg shape carved ivory knop with embossed silver band. The outside rim stamped "900 WIENER WERK STÄTTE, Made in Austria", and "JH". The silver clapper stamped "900" and "WW". Height 8.625 inches (22 cm), diameter of bell 3.5 inches (8.9 cm). Provenance: Private collection, Minneapolis, MinnesotaLiterature: Die Kunst, vol. 17, Munich, 1914, page 428.Astrid Gmeiner and Gottfried Pirhofer, Der Österreichische Werkbund, Salzburg and Vienna, 1985.Joann Skrypzak, exh. cat., Design: Vienna 1890s to 1930s, Chazen Museum of Art, Madison, Wisconsin, 2003, page 68 (for a similar example). Josef Hoffmann (Austrian 1870-1956) was a founding member of the Wiener Werkstätte with banker Fritz Wärndorfer, who funded the venture and fellow artist Koloman Moser. Founded in 1903, the Wiener Werkstätte was a design company who strived to elevate ordinary functional objects to works of art. The offered lot is a notable example of the group’s ideology and demonstrates Hoffmann’s keen understanding of proportion and materials. While functional as a dinner bell, due to Hoffmann’s aesthetically-pleasing streamlined design and use of expensive and decadent materials such as ivory and silver, the item can also be viewed as an object imbued with artistic intent, thought and handling. Hoffman’s designs and the unique items executed by Wiener Werkstätte strongly appealed to the Viennese upper-class who were drawn to the luxurious nature of the group’s one-of-a-kind objects d’art, such as the offered lot.For an identical bell, see Phillips de Pury & Company, New York, Design, March 3, 2012, Lot 28, illustrated.
