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KOLOMAN MOSER  attr.  (1868-1918)  Austria
PORTOIS & FIX  Vienna, Austria

Secessionist center table  c. 1902

Exotic wood with brass inlaid squares, brass stretcher and feet with nickel-plated sabots

Marks: No. 29378 (inventory paper label), oval metal plaque in Russian with No. 798

***This table was likely exhibited at the 1902 Moscow Exhibition of Architecture and Applied Art and that is perhaps the reason for the Russian metal plaque.

For more information see: Art in Vienna, Peter Vergo (London: Phaidon Press Ltd., 1975),  p. 139, footnote 88, p. 247.

H: 29” x  W: 29” x L: 42 1/4”

Price: $42,500

MICHAEL POWOLNY  (1871-1954)  Austria
BERTOLD LÖFFLER (1874-1960)  Austria
VEREINIGTE WIENER UND GMUNDNER KERAMIK  Vienna

Schneckenreiter  c. 1910

Glazed white earthenware hand-painted with black enamel

Marks: conjoined WK (in a square), KG with flower (in a square), 81 (impressed)

***Extremely rare Powolny model in black and white.

Model illustrated: Michael Powolny:  Keramik und Glas aus Wien 1900 bis 1950, Elisabeth Frottier (Vienna: Böhlau Verlag, 1990), p. 50, illus. 20, cat. no. WV43;  Vienna 1900, Vienna, Scotland and the European Avant-Garde, Peter Vergo (Edinburgh, Scotland, 1983), p. 63, plate 19; “Austrian Architecture and Decoration,” The Studio Year Book of Decorative Art 1911 (London: The Studio, 1911), p. 233.

This model may also be found in the permanent collection of the Victoria & Albert Museum, London (Inventory number 604, 1966).

H: 7″ x W: 7 3/4″ x D: 4″

Price: $10,500

MIZI OTTEN (1884-1955) Vienna, Austria, later New York, NY
RENA ROSENTHAL New York

Enameled cover plaque with a “Fantasy interior scene” mounted in a leather covered wood box c. 1925-30

Marks: M.O.(on enamel lower left), RENA (Rena Rosenthal) on back of box

H: 1 5/8″ x W: 7 3/4″ x D: 3 3/4″

Price: $7,250

Mizi Otten was born in Vienna in 1884. At an early age she knew that she wanted to be an artist. Despite the objections of her parents, who thought it unbecoming for their daughter to paint, she attended art school, studying painting and decorative arts in Vienna and Munich. After studying at the School of Art for Women and Girls and the School of Arts and Crafts in Vienna, she went on to produce designs for the Wiener Werkstätte in all areas of applied art: jewellery, metalwork, textiles, fashion, enamels, and commercial graphics. From 1920 she also designed large-format enamels. She was a member of the Neukunstgruppe (New Art Group) and the Austrian Werkbund and took part in all the major Wiener Werkstätte exhibitions, including the 1908 Kunstschau, the 1915 Fashion Exhibition, the 1925 Paris Exposition, the 1925 Deutsche Frauenkunst Exhibition and the 1930 Werkbund Exhibition.

By 1925 her work was considered of such exceptional quality that it was included in the Austrian pavilion at the International Exposition in Paris. She won the silver medal for enameling. Among the many attendees at this prestigious and historically significant exposition was Rena Rosenthal, an important American dealer whose New York gallery specialized in contemporary German and Austrian decorative arts. She and several other dealers purchased Otten’s work and began selling it in the United States. Twelve years later she again won the silver medal for enamels at the International Exposition in Paris. With the threat of war looming, she immigrated to the United States in 1938. By the time she arrived in New York, her work was already well known in this country.

The year 1939 brought the artist tremendous exposure throughout the United States. Five enamels were juried into the Eighth National Ceramic Exhibition in Syracuse, nine works were shown in the Exhibition of Decorative Arts in Denver, and five works were included in the prestigious Golden Gate International Exposition in San Francisco. By 1940 Otten was firmly established as a prominent enamel artist in the United States. She went on to participate in three more of the Syracuse Ceramic Nationals—in 1940, 1941, and 1948. Her work was shown at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York in the early 1940s. In February 1944 a profile of Otten was published in Craft Horizons. The artist discussed how her style in enameling had changed since she had come to the United States. She stated that Americans preferred a more naturalistic approach, as compared to the more abstract style she had developed in Vienna. She was happy to embrace this new approach to enameling, however, and found tremendous satisfaction in her work. In 1950 she and Kathe Berl cowrote and self-published a manual on enameling technique entitled The Art of Enameling; or, Enameling Can Be Fun, which was one of the earliest how-to books on the subject to appear in this country.

*** Prior to emigrating to the US in 1938 and while in Vienna, Mizi Otten used her European name, Mitzi Otten-Friedmann.

Rena Rosenthal (1880–1966) was a trend-setting American retailer and businesswoman.
Rena Rosenthal was a promoter of applied arts in the modernist style whose patronage helped launch the careers of such noted designers as Donald Deskey, Tommi Parzinger, Ernst Schwadron and Russel Wright. She established the Austrian Workshop,later Rena Rosenthal Studio and then Rena Rosenthal Gallery. She retailed exclusive handcrafted glass, porcelain, fabric, metal and wood objects for home adornment through her shop at 520 (later 438) Madison Avenue. Many of these items were sourced in her father’s and husband’s native Austria; her shop distributed wares from the Wiener Werkstätte and from the Viennese designer Karl Hagenauer. She introduced the work of Austrian enamel artist Mizi Otten to North America, and was an early promoter of English potter and painter T. S. Haile. She loaned German pottery and Austrian metalwork items to the Worcester Art Museum’s third annual exhibit of modern decorative arts, in 1929. While she is known now principally for her exclusive retail shop (regular advertisements were seen in House & Garden and Harpers magazines), her business was listed over the years in New York directories under “Painters & Decorators” and “Gift Shops”, and in Chicago under “Art Goods.” Rena Rosenthal was an influential arbiter of taste and fashion in the interior decorating world, particularly during the introduction of modernism to North America. She handled art works that ended up in collections of notable individuals like Geoffrey Beene and institutions such as the Cooper-Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum.

JULIUS DRESSLER Biela, Czech Republic

JULIUS DRESSLER BIELA (1888-1945) Czech Republic

Bowl 1910

Black and white glazed earthenware with three ball feet

Marks: JDB, 7764 (underglaze)

H: 4 7/8” x D base: 10 7/8”

Price: $3,750

Julius Dressler was a noted Bohemian ceramics manufacturing company that operated from the late 19th century until the end of World War II. Founded by Julius Dressler in the 1880s in Biela, Bohemia, the company produced high-quality decorative faience, Maiolica and porcelain ware. Dressler gained international renown for the ceramics it produced in the early 1900s in the Art Nouveau style, also known as “Jugendstil” or “Secessionist” ware.

JOSEF HOFFMANN  (1870-1956)  Austria
WIENER WERKSTÄTTE  (1903-1932)  Vienna

Oval serving tray c. 1910

Silver plated alpaca

Marks: JH monogram, WIENER/WERK/STATTE, MADE IN AUSTRIA (impressed); L 478 a 1 (inscribed)

Illustrated: Wiener Werkstätte:  Die Schutzmarken, The Registered Trade Marks, Waltraud Neuwirth (Wien:  Selbstverlag Dr. Waltraud Neuwirth, 1985), p. 221; Wiener Werkstätte, 1903-1932, Gabriele Fahr-Becker (Köln: Benedikt Taschen Verlag GmbH, 1995), p. 161.

H: 1 3/4″ x W: 14″ x D: 11 3/4″

Price: $5,800

WILHELM WAGENFELD (1900-1990) Germany

WMF  [Württembergische Metallwarenfabrik]  Geislingen, Germany

Tazza  c. 1935

Hexagonal green-tinted lead crystal covered dish / tazza with lid in a stepped jewel-like form mounted with a silver lid and footed base silver

Marks:  WMF logo, moon, crown, 800

For more information see: Wilhelm Wagenfeld und die Moderne Glasindustrie,Walter Scheiffele (Stuttgart: Verlag Gerd Hatje, 1994); WMF Ikora Metall / Metalwork, Carlo Burschel and Heinz Scheiffele (Stuttgart, Germany: ARNOLDSCHE, 2006).

H: 5 1/4″ x D: 7″ x W: 7″

Price: $3,500

CHRISTIAN DELL (1893-1974)  Germany
BAUHAUS  (1919-1933) Germany

“Tee-Ei”  (tea ball) 1924 (rare set of 8)

Silvered brass.

***These are all in fine original, untouched condition.

Illustrated: Christian Dell: Silberschmied und Leuchtengestalter im 20. Jahrhundert, Beate Alice Hofmann, Museum Hanau (Hanau: Heller Druck,1996) illus. 15, p.56; Modernist Design 1880-1940, Alastair Duncan, The Norwest Collection (Woodbridge, Suffolk: The Antique Collectors’ Club, 1998), p. 173; Decorative Arts 1850-1950, Judy Rudoe, (London: British Museum Press, 1991) cover,  p. 276; Die Metall Werkstatt am Bauhaus, (Berlin: Bauhaus-Archiv, Museum für Gestaltung, 1992) pp. 140-141 Silver of a New Era,  (Rotterdam: Museum Boymans-van Beuningen, 1992)  p. 157;  cat. no. 140.

Length: 5 1/4″

Price: $9,600

Christian Dell, metal artist and industrial designer, played a formative role in shaping the Bauhaus style. Dell was the master of the metal workshop at the Bauhaus, 1922-25, in Weimar, working closely with László Moholy-Nagy.

Born the son of a locksmith in Offenbach in 1893, he had a great impact as a teacher on the curriculum of the Weimar metal workshop. He had done an apprenticeship as a silversmith in Hanau before and had also attended the drawing academy, followed by a stay at the Weimar School of Applied Art. Henry van de Velde, director of this institution, coined Christian Dell’s early works with his organic-flowing use of forms, a feature that can also be observed on Dell’s later works.

Metal workshop at the Bauhaus in Weimar:
From 1922, the former goldsmith, silversmith and coppersmith workshops of the Weimar phase became a laboratory for design where metal vessels and lamps were made. This is also where the designs for industry, as well as metal furniture, were ultimately created. In 1922, the silversmith Christian Dell took over as master of works. Following Itten’s departure in 1923, the workshop developed in a new direction with the Hungarian Constructivist László Moholy-Nagy. Instead of individual pieces, prototypes were now made for mass production. In order to manufacture the individual models, a production line was established.

HAYNO FOCKEN (1905-1968) Germany

Round covered box c. 1935

Hand-wrought and hand-hammered copper with brass details

Marks under the foot: HF (conjoined monogram)

For other works by Hayno Focken see: Metallkunst: Vom Jugendstil zur Moderne (1889-1939), ed. Karl H. Bröhan (Berlin: Bröhan Museum, 1990), illus. 177, p. 183; Avantgarde Design 1880=1930,Torsten Bröhan & Thomas Berg (Köln, Benedict Taschen, 1994) p. 116; , (Berlin 1937) S. 43f, Abb. 37, Abb. S 128, S 146, Sl 243; Die Schaulade 15 Ausg. A (1939) Abb. S. 197, S. 204, S. 213; Die Schaulade 16 Ausg. A (1940) Abb. S. 44, S. 51., S. 54, S. 71, S. 83. S. 89; Die Kunst 84 (1941) S. 136, S. 139-39; Die Schaulade 17 (1941) Abb. S. 13, S. 41, S. 82, S. 229;

H: 4 ¼” x Dia: 4 7/8”

Hayno Focken (1905-1968) was an eminent German metal artist. He completed his training under Professor Karl Müller (1888-1972) at the design and arts school on Giebichenstein Castle in Halle (Saale), which was strongly tied to the ideals of the Deutsche Werkbund and the Bauhaus. In 1932 he established his own workshop in Lahr/Schwarzwald and continued his work until shortly before his death. His artistic work always stood out with a strong preference for large, organic forms, a similar manner of surface design and the same adherence to the principle of handicraft. Even his artist signet was modelled on the simple, square castle mark. In the 1950s he became one of those significant artists who had a major impact on contemporary metal design. The foundation of his creative work was a masterful understanding of proportions.

Karl Raichle(1889 – 1965) Meersburg, Germany.

Candlestick c. 1928

Hand hammered pewter in a half sphere and cone form

Marks: Meersburg, 6 7 8   2

For more information on Karl Raichle see: Avantgarde Design 1880-1930,Torsten Bröhan & Thomas Berg (Köln, Benedict Taschen, 1994) p. 101.

H: 3 1/8″ x Dia: 3 1/2″

Price: $2,250

Karl Raichle (1889 – 1965) attended the Bauhaus as a student in the late 1920’s before opening his own metalworkshop in Meersburg. Raichle was a student of Laszlo Moholy-Nagy at the Bauhaus in Dessau.

STEINGUTFABRIKEN VELTEN-VORDAMM Werk Velten, Germany

Vase c. 1920

Handpainted and glazed earthenware

Marks: VELTEN-VORDAMM company logo

Similar work illustrated: Keramik und Bauhaus, Klaus Weber et al., exhib. cat. (Berlin: Bauhaus-Archiv, 1989), p. 229, illus. 289.

H: 5” x Dia: 5 1/2″

VICTOR MOSCOSO USA

The Chambers Bros at the Matrix   March 28, 30 & April 4, 6, 1967

Marked: Moscoso (in script), © 1967 NEON ROSE #12

H: 19 15/16” x W: 13 15/16”

CARL VAN VECHTEN (1880-1964) USA

Anna May Wong   1932

Signed: Anna May Wong 1932 (in pencil on back); PHOTOGRAPH BY CARL VAN VECHTEN CANNOT BE REPRODUCED WITHOUT PERMISSION (ink stamp on back)

Size: H: 9 7/8”x W: 7 7/8”

Anna May Wong (1905 – 1961) was the first Chinese American actress to become a movie star in a career that spanned both the silent movie era and the advent of the talkies, along with starring roles on the stage, and in radio and television, even hosting her own television show at one point. This is all the more remarkable considering the racist times in which she worked. Many Asian actresses have been acclaimed since, under less adverse conditions, but none have reached Wong’s level. Some of her more notable silent movies include a leading role in The Toll of the Sea, one of the first color movies, The Thief of Bagdad, which starred Douglas Fairbanks, and Piccadilly. She was also featured in some notable talkies, including Shanghai Express, which co-starred Marlene Dietrich, and Daughter of the Dragon, in which she starred opposite an Asian leading man, Sessue Hayakawa. Early in her career, she was seen as a sex symbol, a feat other Asian actresses would not match for decades.

CARL VAN VECHTEN (1880-1964) USA

Billie Holiday    1949

Signed: Billie Holiday, March 23. 1949, III g9.11(in ink on back); PHOTOGRAPH BY CARL VAN VECHTEN, 101 CENTRAL PARK WEST, CANNOT BE REPRODUCED WITHOUT PERMISSION (ink stamp on back)

Size: H: 9 3/8” x W: 6 11/16”

Billie Holiday (1915-1959) was an American jazz singer and songwriter. Nicknamed Lady Day by her sometime collaborator Lester Young, Holiday was a seminal influence on jazz, and pop singers’ critic John Bush wrote that she “changed the art of American pop vocals forever.” Her vocal style — strongly inspired by instrumentalists — pioneered a new way of manipulating wording and tempo, and also popularized a more personal and intimate approach to singing.

CARL VAN VECHTEN (1880-1964) USA

Bojangles   1935

Signed: Bill Robison, XXV . b . 25 (in ink on back); PHOTOGRAPH BY CARL VAN VECHTEN, 101 CENTRAL PARK WEST, CANNOT BE REPRODUCED WITHOUT PERMISSION (ink stamp on back)

Size: H: 9 15/16” x W: 6 3/8”

Bill “Bojangles” Robinson (1878-1949) was a pioneer and pre-eminent African-American tap dance performer.

CARL VAN VECHTEN (1880-1964) USA

Anna May Wong

Signed: Anna May Wong (in black ink on back); XXIII i:22 (in pencil on back); PHOTOGRAPH BY CARL VAN VECHTEN, 101 CENTRAL PARK WEST, CANNOT BE REPRODUCED WITHOUT PERMISSION (ink stamp on back)

Size: H: 9 15/16” x W: 7 7/16”

Anna May Wong (1905 – 1961) was the first Chinese American actress to become a movie star in a career that spanned both the silent movie era and the advent of the talkies, along with starring roles on the stage, and in radio and television, even hosting her own television show at one point. This is all the more remarkable considering the racist times in which she worked. Many Asian actresses have been acclaimed since, under less adverse conditions, but none have reached Wong’s level.

Some of her more notable silent movies include a leading role in The Toll of the Sea, one of the first color movies, The Thief of Bagdad, which starred Douglas Fairbanks, and Piccadilly. She was also featured in some notable talkies, including Shanghai Express, which co-starred Marlene Dietrich, and Daughter of the Dragon, in which she starred opposite an Asian leading man, Sessue Hayakawa. Early in her career, she was seen as a sex symbol, a feat other Asian actresses would not match for decades.