512 - Josef Hoffmann

Josef Hoffmann Wiener Werkstätte From the estate of Karl Ernst Osthaus: A museum-quality silver box by Josef Hoffmann On a flat base, a round, slightly bulbous body with a subtly stepped shoulder. The body with restrained martelé decoration between four vertical fluted bands. The domed slip lid with a finial formed of two intersecting semi-circular discs; a coral cabochon serving as the handle. Height 13.5 cm; diameter 9.8 cm; weight 332 g. Vienna, marks of Josef Hoffmann for the Wiener Werkstätte, 1905. Karl Ernst Osthaus was a great admirer of the Wiener Werkstätte and its co-founder, Josef Hoffmann. As early as 1906, the Folkwang Museum was the first German museum to present works by Hoffmann and Koloman Moser in a highly acclaimed exhibition. A further exhibition followed in 1913, featuring arts and crafts and textiles. Osthaus held the Palais Stoclet in Brussels, the “most luxurious” Gesamtkunstwerk by Josef Hoffmann and the Wiener Werkstätte, built between 1905 and 1911, in such high esteem that during the First World War he waged a determined, though ultimately unsuccessful, campaign against the German authorities to save its gilded copper roof from being melted down. A review in a Hagen newspaper, which was very probably written by Osthaus himself, provides insight into his view of the decorative arts: “The principles that prevail in the Wiener Werkstätte are, naturally, the same as those that have given new impetus to the decorative arts everywhere. Against the overloaded and tasteless luxury goods, pure forms of well-balanced proportions are set; against careless machine production, solid and inspired craftsmanship (…)” (Der Westdeutsche Impuls, op. cit., pp. 83 ff.). This unique box, with its clear formal language, is likely to be one of the earliest works by Josef Hoffmann in a private collection. Provenance Collection of Karl Ernst Osthaus, Hagen; bequeathed to his niece Lisa Osthaus; German art market; German private collection. Exhibitions Folkwang Museum, Essen, and the Deutsches Museum für Kunst im Handel und Gewerbe, Hagen: November and December 1906, “Arts and Crafts of the Wiener Werkstätte”. Repeatedly exhibited at both museums in February 1913: “Clothing and Arts and Crafts of the Wiener Werkstätte”. Literature Illustrated in Deutsche Kunst und Dekoration, vol. 17, Darmstadt, 1905/1906, p. 174, and in the catalogue Der Westdeutsche Impuls 1900–1914: Die Folkwang-Idee des Karl Ernst Osthaus, Essen, 1984, p. 84, fig. 51; there listed as being in the possession of Lisa Osthaus.