Walter Bosse / Austrian Keramik Art Deco Glazed Pottery Bookends c.1930
WALTER BOSSE (1904 – 1979) Austria
Bookends c. 1930
Hand-painted and glazed earthenware
For more information see: Walter Bosse: Leben, Kunst, und Handwerk, 1904-1979, Cherica Schreyer-Hartmann, Hans Hagen & Johanna Hottenroth (Vienna: Verlag Christian Brandstätter, 2000), Wiener Keramik: Historismus, Jugendstil, Art Déco, Waltraud Neuwirth, (Braunschweig: Klinkhardt & Bierman, 1974), pp. 114-115.
H: 5″ x D: 4 1/2″ x W: 5 1/4″
Price: $2,250
Walter Bosse (November 13, 1904–December 13, 1979) was a Viennese artist, designer, ceramist, potter, metalworker, and craftsman noted for his modernist bronze animal figurines and grotesques.
Walter Bosse, born November 13, 1904, in Vienna, was the son of artists Luise and Julius Bosse. His father worked as a portrait painter at the imperial court. Walter Bosse attended the Wiener Kunstgewerbeschule (Vienna School of Applied Arts) from 1918 to 1921, where he studied ceramics under Michael Powolny, and ornament under Franz Cižek. He then attended the Münchner Kunstgewerbeschule (Munich School of Applied Arts). During his schooling he was given the opportunity to sell his work at the Wiener Werkstätte by Josef Hoffmann, who became a mentor to Bosse. Bosse opened his own shop in Kufstein in 1923.
Bosse’s work grew in popularity and a number of his pieces were shown at the International Exposition of Modern Industrial and Decorative Arts in 1925. He started designing for Augarten Porcelain Works (1924) as well as Goldscheider (1926) and Metzler and Ortloff (1927). In 1931, to meet increasing demand (especially in America), Bosse opened up a bigger shop in Kufstein, but by 1933 he started to feel the effects of the economic depression. By 1937, the Kufstein works were closed.
In 1938, now divorced, Bosse moved back to Vienna where he founded Bosse-Keramik (Bosse Ceramics), which expanded under the new name “Terra” to include glass, toys, textiles. and a variety of craft items for the gift market. In the late 1940s, Bosse began experimenting with brass by giving his ceramic figures a metal coating to protect them from breakage. In the early 1950s, Bosse began his “Black Golden” line of brass figurines. He transitioned all of his efforts to brass. The figures became popular worldwide.
Despite Bosse’s success with his brass figures, it was still a difficult time for him financially. In 1953, partly fleeing from financial troubles, he moved to Iserlohn where he set up a new shop and continued production. Bosse also collaborated with Karlsruhe State Majolika Works on a number of pottery animal figures. In 1958, he designed for Achatit Schirmer in Cologne. Bosse also turned his efforts to small, everyday items such as letter openers, keyrings, corkscrews, and pencil holders, all of which bear his distinctive “black and gold” look. A number of these Bosse designs began to gain widespread popularity internationally.
Marcel Bouraine, Pair of French Art Deco “Dove” Bookends c. 1930
Marcel Bouraine (active 1925-1930) France.
Pair of Art Deco “Dove” sculptural bookends, circa 1930.
Silvered bronze (sand cast technique) in the form of doves with openly displayed and fan shaped tail feathers perched on roof pan tiles.
Marks: Bouraine (2x), #’s 52 and 53.
For more information and other works by Bouraine see: Les Echoes D’Art (May 1927), p. 21; Art Deco Sculpture, Bryan Catley; The Art Deco Style, Selected by Theodore Menten (New York: Dover Publications, 1972), p. 172; Dictionnaire critique et documentaire des Peintres, Sculpteurs, Dessinateurs et Graveurs, E. Bénézit, vol. 2 (Paris: Librarie Grund, 1976), p. 231, An Encylopedia of Art Deco, Edited by Alastair Duncan (New York: E.P. Dutton, 1988) pp. 26,28-29,31,104; Art Deco, Victor Arwas (New York, Harry Abrams,1980) pp. 163, 269.
Margaret Postgate / Cowan Pottery Studio American Art Deco Cubist Elephant bookends c. 1929
MARGARET POSTGATE (1879-1953) USA
WAYLANDE GREGORY (1905-1971) USA
ARTHUR BAGGS (1886-1947) (glaze development) USA
COWAN POTTERY STUDIO USA
Cubist Elephant bookends 1929
Ceramic bookends with a black gunmetal glaze
Signed: Cowan studio mark (under glaze) Cowan bookend numbers 840 and 841
For more information and illustration see: Cowan Pottery and the Cleveland School, by Mark Bassett and Victoria Naumann (Atglen, PA: Schiffer, 1997).
H: 4 1/2″ x W: 5 1/2” x D: 3 3/4”
Margaret J. Postgate was born in Chicago, IL on September 29, 1879 and died at a hospital in the Bronx, NY in 1953. Her family moved to Manhattan around 1910 and then Brooklyn around 1925 and she remained a Brooklyn resident right up until her death. Her parents were both born in England: John W. Postgate and Margaret Postgate nee Derry. She had siblings, a brother George and one or two sisters, Mary and/or Mae. Margaret studied at the Art Institute of Chicago and Cooper Union School of Art in New York. In 1925, 1925, and 1926 she participated in soap sculpture carving competitions, some sponsored by Procter & Gamble Corporation in Cincinnati, Ohio. Pamphlets exist as well as exhibition brochures and others on “how-to” carving penned by Postgate. Margaret Postgate designed for Cowan from 1929-1930 where she adapted a few of the designs she had rendered in soap for ceramic sculptures for the Cowan Pottery. She also executed a few pieces of sculpture that were cast in bronze for the bronze division of the Gorham Manufacturing Company.
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