574 - Henry van de Velde

Henry van de Velde A secretaire bookcase by Henry van de Velde (1863 - 1957) Solid and veneered mahogany on oak; bevelled glass, brass. Piece of furniture combining a desk with two compartments and a bookcase on a base plate angled forwards at the sides. Beneath the slightly curved upper cornice are two glazed doors with muntins. Significant signs of wear, the edges slightly chipped. Height 186, width 147, depth 62 cm. Produced by Hofkunsttischlerei Scheidemantel, Weimar, 1903. The Antwerp-born Henry van de Velde (1863–1957) was once described by the architect and author Klaus-Jürgen Sembach as an “all-round artist for everyone”. His work encompassed every material category of the applied arts - in other words, everything with which the houses he designed could be furnished and equipped. His clients were demanding, and Henry van de Velde transferred these high standards to the companies with which he worked. Whether Reinhold Hanke in Höhr-Grenzhausen, the Royal Porcelain Manufactory in Meissen, the silversmith Theodor Müller in Weimar or the Scheidemantel furniture factory, they all encountered Henry van de Velde’s perfectionism. He did not think in terms of mass production, but rather of “class production” (in the sense of the highest level of quality), and imbued his objects with a sense of permanence. Today, he is regarded as a pioneer of the applied arts - his objects are highlights in museums and exhibitions presenting art from around 1900. Among van de Velde’s female clients was Margarete Mauthner (1863–1947), one of the leading Jewish art collectors amongst Berlin’s middle classes. It was only in the last two decades that she achieved belated posthumous fame. The first translator of Vincent van Gogh’s letters was also among those who, as early as 1905, owned one of his paintings. Over the course of the following years, she succeeded in acquiring (according to Walter Feilchenfeldt) eight further significant works by van Gogh. She also owned paintings and drawings by Lovis Corinth, Max Liebermann, Max Pechstein, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and Pierre-Auguste Renoir. Her art collection exemplified that turn towards modern art, which she also embodied in her own home and way of life. Who was this art-loving woman? Margarete Mauthner herself wrote a book of her memoirs covering the years 1915 to 1917, which remained accessible exclusively to her family for decades until part of it was published in 2004 under the title ‘Das verzauberte Haus’ (The Enchanted House). The historian Anna-Carolin Augustin made a significant contribution to her rediscovery and art-historical contextualisation; in her articles, published from 2012 onwards, she focused on Mauthner as a collector and promoter of modern art. Most recently, an article by Stefan Koldehoff appeared in the catalogue *From Monet to Picasso: Jewish Art Collectors in Germany*. Margarete Mauthner was born in Berlin on 7 July 1863, the daughter of the banker Julius Alexander. Her father was able to support her financially for a long time, even after she had married Alexander Pinkuss, the son of a banker. A year after their marriage, in 1887, their daughter Edith (1863–1902) was born. Her marriage to Pinkuss did not last long, partly because he was a compulsive gambler; Margarete divorced him in 1899. A few months later, she married Edmund Mauthner (1868–1909), who was five years her junior. A stay of just over a year with her brother Fritz Alexander in Munich in 1891–92 – which coincided precisely with the founding of the Munich Secession – may well have been decisive for the course of her life. It was here that Mauthner developed her strong affinity for contemporary art and modern design. In Edmund Mauthner, she had found a partner who shared this enthusiasm and who acquired art together with her and on her behalf. Her home environment, too, became an expression of this new understanding of art. The couple changed their interior design style and commissioned Henry van de Velde. His idea of combining architecture, furniture and everyday objects into an artistic whole corresponded to Mauthner’s own shift towards a modern, art-inspired way of life. Her enthusiasm was fuelled by her friendship with the three cousins Bruno, Paul and Hugo Cassirer. Artists such as Max Liebermann, Lovis Corinth, Max Slevogt, Erich Hancke and Paul Baum were regular guests at their evening gatherings. Around 1904, Bruno Cassirer asked the polyglot Margarete Mauthner if she would translate for him. Her selection from over 2,000 letters by Vincent van Gogh was first published as a series in the magazine *Kunst und Künstler*, and later as a book published by Cassirer. In 1909, she suffered a severe blow: her husband Edmund passed away. In 1915, her daughter Edith Pinkuss married the physicist and later AEG director Adolf Orgler. Following the birth of three grandchildren, Margarete moved in with her daughter, who lived with her family in a large house in Grunewald, at Im Dol 42. This house, too, was furnished with pieces by van de Velde. In the 1920s, Margarete Mauthner began selling art, presumably also to tide her over during financial difficulties. From 1933 onwards, Mauthner financed the emigration of individual family members to South Africa by continuing to sell paintings from her collection. Following the November pogroms of 1938, Margarete Mauthner, together with her daughter Edith Orgler, managed to flee to Johannesburg in March 1939 to join her family and her brother Fritz Alexander, who had been living there since 1933 and with whom she remained closely connected throughout her life. The family were able to take a few pieces of van de Velde's furniture, including the two items on offer here, with them into exile in 1939 and keep them in the family’s possession throughout the war. On 24 April 1947, Margarete Mauthner died in Johannesburg. She had never seen Germany again – but there was little reason to do so. For, as Stefan Koldehoff writes: “Many of her friends, acquaintances and relatives in Germany [had] already been murdered, and the culture she had loved had been reduced to cultureless barbarism.” Margarethe Mauthner (1863–1947) was a client of Henry van de Velde from 1901/02 onwards. She commissioned numerous pieces of furniture from him, including a dining room set, as well as this desk with bookcase and the dressing table featured in the previous lot. This combination piece is a unique item; no other examples of the design are known to exist. The historical photograph, kindly provided by her descendants, shows the desk in situ in Margarethe Mauthner’s flat in March 1939. This lot contains organic material that does not permit the export of this lot into non-EU countries. Provenance Margarete Mauthner (1863–1947). Edith Rebekka Orgler (née Pinkuss, 1887–1946) and Dr Adolf Orgler (1875–1964). 1964 Else Juliane Margarete Josefa Orkin (née Orgler, 1910–1987), in the possession of her descendants from 1982. Literature Listed on the website of the Klassik Stiftung Weimar, Werkverzeichnis Henry van de Velde, online cat. no. 2398. Cf. Mössinger/Metz (eds.), Henry van de Velde und Edvard Munch in Chemnitz, Bielefeld–Berlin–Chemnitz 2013, cat. nos. 10 f., two earlier bookcases from the Brussels period. On Margarete Mauthner, see Augustin, "Apostel des unbekannten Heiligen". Die Van-Gogh-Übersetzerin und -Sammlerin Margarete Mauthner, in: Kat. Aufbruch in die Moderne: Sammler, Mäzene und Kunsthändler in Berlin 1880–1933, Cologne 2012, pp. 136 ff. See also Augustin, Biographien jüdischer Frauen: Ein großbürgerliches Frauenleben für die moderne Kunst – Der Rückblick der Berliner Kunstsammlerin Margarete Mauthner, in: Medaon 9, 2015, pp. 1 ff. See also Augustin, Berliner Kunstmatronage. Sammlerinnen und Förderinnen bildender Kunst um 1900, Göttingen 2018, pp. 59 ff. See also Koldehoff, Margarete Mauthner (1863–1947), in: Von Monet bis Picasso. Jüdische Kunstsammler:innen in Deutschland, Hamburg–Munich 2026.