Product Description
Paul Laszlo Rare Art Deco Enameled Sterling Cigarette Case c.1925
PAUL LÁSZLÓ (1900-1993) Austria / USA
MARIA ROTT (enamel) Vienna, Austria
Enameled sterling cigarette case c.1925
Hand painted foil backed and colorful fired enamel scene with a figure and a flowering plant all within a red enamel border on sterling
Marks: Paul Laszlo (on inside edge, rubbed), RS in a cartouche (Vienna maker’s mark), STERLING
H: 4″ x W: 3″ x D: 3/8″
Matching enamel dresser set by Paul Laszlo illustrated: “Kunsthandwerk” Band 62, Heft 5, February 1930
Born in Budapest, the architect Paul Laszlo studied in Vienna, Paris and Berlin before setting up an office in Vienna. By 1927, Laszlo had moved to Stuttgart where he quickly made a name for himself across Europe. In 1936, he relocated to Beverly Hills, California, which had become a haven for many artists and designers seeking artistic freedom. There he quietly found work designing modern homes and interiors, often for Hollywood celebrities. Laszlo created textiles, lamps, as well as custom furniture for his modernist homes and corporate interiors. His comfortable, yet elegant designs pay tribute to the modern luxury and easy livability of the early to mid 20th Century interiors of Vienna.
This enamel on sterling case really is one of the very best fired enamel examples of its type. It has a wonderful range of beautifully toned and colored enamel with foil backing in some areas which also gives it extra luminosity and metallic glow. It is in perfect condition and the detail and masterful artistic quality of the painting is also extremely fine and exquisitely rendered.
It has all the style and characteristics of the accomplished Neue Shachlichkeit (or New Realism / Objectivity) painting style Laszlo would have been familiar with and exposed to either in Berlin or Stuttgart as well as the New Realism style in Vogue in Vienna, where Laszlo also worked in the 1920’s. Considering the difficulty in controlling fired enamel, this exceptional Laszlo enameled case is a bargain by comparison of the price per square inch of a comparable painting on canvas such as a Christian Schad or Otto Dix! In fact, paintings are vastly more simple to execute and immediately rendered by comparison to a fired enamel “painting” on sterling like this exceptional case which would require a very lengthy and tedious process to accomplish a work of this caliber.
Paul Laszlo left Germany for America in 1936 and established a successful design firm in Beverly Hills, became an American citizen and lived happily in Southern California for the rest of his life.
Paul Laszlo Rare Art Deco Enameled Sterling Cigarette Case c.1925
GILBERT ROHDE (1894-1944) USA
HERMAN MILLER CLOCK CO. Zeeland, Mich.
Showroom sample clock and thermometer/barometer c. 1933
Block of seven stacked wood varieties with three brushed chrome bars, chromium-plated rings and original convex glass clock faces
For related Rohde clock designs: American Modern 1925-1940: Design for a New Age, J. Stewart Johnson (New York: Harry Abrams & Am. Federation of Arts, 2000) p. 142-43 The Machine Age in America: 1918-1941, Richard Guy Wilson, Dianne H. Pilgram and Dickran Tashjian, exhibit. Cat. (New York: The Brooklyn Museum and Harry N. Abrams, 1986), vintage Herman Miller catalog.
H: 5 ½” L: 10 ¼” x W: 2 ½”
PER SAX MØLLER (b. 1950) Denmark
Round sculptural centerpiece with geometrical shapes 2000
Sterling silver
Marks: PER SAX MØLLER, Copenhagen, 925s, Sterling
Exhibited: Danske Sølsmede-nye arbejder (Danish silversmiths-new work), Museet på Koldingshus, 2002.
Diameter: 8 ¼”
Price: $12,500
The silversmith Per Sax Møller was trained in the Danish silver tradition with Jeweler to the Royal Danish Court, A. Michelsen, from 1968-1972. The workshop specialized in style copies and modern silver, which during the 1900’s was designed by architects such as Thorvald Bindesbøll, Kay Fisker, Erik Herløw, Tove and Edvard Kint-Larsen, among many others.
After completing his apprenticeship, he worked at Preben Salomonsen’s workshop in Copenhagen, mainly creating style copies for stores such as Tiffany, Bloomingdale’s and Aspery. Here, the ancient silversmith’s craft he had learned at A. Michelsen, was further honed. During the years 1973-1975, he attended classes at Guldsmedehøjskolen, but he was disappointed in the low standard of teaching and therefore did not graduate.
He found the opportunity for a far richer artistic education as a conscientious objector, stationed at the art museum Louisiana in Humlebæk, outside Copenhagen. He spent more than a year here, surrounded by the works of Henry Moore, Arp, Calder, Laurent and Danish artists such as Astrid Noack, Ejler Bille, Sonja Ferlov Mancoba, Villy Ørskov and many more, which left a deep and profound mark.
In 1976, Per Sax Møller established himself in a workshop alongside goldsmith Jørgen Bindesbøll, in St. Kongensgade in Copenhagen. Over the next couple af years, he also joined the association “Danske Sølvsmede” in exhibitions throughout Scandivavia. He retired from the workshop with Jørgen Bindesbøll in 1980, but continued to create works in rented space. To help earn a living, he drove a city bus and worked for Folketeateret in Copenhagen, creating theatre sets.
Jørgen Bindesbøll moved to Møn in 1984, and Per Sax Møller took over his workshop in St. Kongensgade. Soon thereafter, he established himself in a workshop in Pilestræde, Copenhagen, and then in 1992, he took over silversmith Kay Bojesen’s workshop in Bredgade 47, where he resides today.
In the mid 1990’s Per Sax Møller rejoins “Danske Sølvsmede”, and in 1999 he succeeds silversmith Ib Andersen as president of the association. As president, he revitalizes Danish silver by initiating the exhibition Danish Silver 2000, which takes up most of the space in the museum Koldinghus and becomes one of the largest manifestations of Danish silver. During one summer month, the exhibition was visited by 30,000 guests.
In 2002, Per Sax Møller resigns the presidency of “Danske Sølvsmede” to once again concentrate on his own works. Per Sax Møller has received Danish State Arts Foundation grant in 1979, 1997, 2000 and 2002. His works are represented at Oslo Museum of Art and Design, Danish Museum of Art and Design, at the museum Koldinghus and in private collections in Europe, USA and Canada.