Product Description
Marianne Brandt / Metallwarenfabrik Ruppelwerk / F.W. Quist Bauhaus Black enameled desk accessories & ashtray c. 1930
MARIANNE BRANDT (1893-1983) Germany
METALLWARENFABRIK RUPPELWERK Gotha, Germany
Paper holder c. 1930
Black enameled and nickeled metal, hinged ball weight, ball feet
Marks: RUPPEL (in a circle), mehrfach geschützt
Illustrated: Die Metall Werkstatt am Bauhaus, (Berlin: Bauhaus-Archiv, Museum für Gestaltung, 1992) pp. 181-3;
H: 1 5/8” x W: 5 1/4” x D: 4”
Napkin holder c. 1930
Black enameled metal and nickeled base
Marks: RUPPEL (in a circle), mehrfach geschützt, 85/4440/37, Ruv 5 (numbers in red crayon)
H: 3 ¾” x W: 5” x D: 2 1/8”
For other works by Brandt for Metallwarenfabrik Ruppelwerk see: Die Metall Werkstatt am Bauhaus, (Berlin: Bauhaus-Archiv, Museum für Gestaltung, 1992) pp. 180-183; Die Metall Werkstatt am Bauhaus, (Berlin: Bauhaus-Archiv, Museum für Gestaltung, 1992) pp. 181-3; Avantgarde Design 1880-1930, Torsten Bröhan, Thomas Berg (Cologne: Benedikt Taschen, 1994) p. 105.
F.W. QUIST Esslingen, Germany
Ball ashtray “Smokny”
Nickel plated metal and black lacquered surface
Marks: Quist (on bottom)
H: 3 1/2″
The hardwarefactory F.W.Quist, Esslingen, Germany was founded 1868 as „Lackier- und Metallwaarenfabrik“ from the turner and metal-turner Jacob Schweizer, jun.. In the year 1872, the conversion of the business from a public company occurred, the “Actien-Plaqué Fabrik”. From 1890, the director and shareholders Friedrich Wilhelm Quist took over the business as alone-owner. In his succession four generations continued the business as family-businesses until 1981.
The business always stood for the manufacture more representatively props in the taste of the time. „Tischkultur, Gastlichkeit, Geschenkkultur dienten als Felder, einen gehobenen, verfeinerten Lebensstil zu dokumentieren und das unabhängig von der gesellschaftlichen Zugehörigkeit.“ (Served table-culture, hospitality, gift-culture as fields should document lifestyle, independently of the social affiliation) (Esslingen 2004, S.60)
So, the form of the 1970 as newness presented ball-ashtray was borrowed this famous „ball“ or „globe“ (presented for the first time, 1966 at the international furniture-fair in Cologne) and „bubble“ (1968) chairs by the finish designer Eero Aarnio. The completely new and unconventional shape, Aarnio developed on basis of the simplest geometrical form, the ball. It advanced to a cult-object of the following decade and didn’t lose anything modernity until today.
Marianne Brandt / Metallwarenfabrik Ruppelwerk / F.W. Quist Bauhaus Black enameled desk accessories & ashtray c. 1930
KARL HAGENAUER (1898-1956) Austria
HAGENAUER WERKSTÄTTE Vienna, Austria
Pair of figural cordials c. 1930
Nickel-plated brass
Marks: wHw in a circle (Hagenauer Werkstätte logo), Hagenauer Wien, MADE IN AUSTRIA
For related sculptural works see: reprint of Hagenauer Werkstätte vintage catalog, c. 1930, p. 19, lamp model#1561, p. 22, car mascot model #1583.
For more information see: Metallkunst, Karl H. Bröhan (Berlin: Bröhan Museum, 1990) pp. 200-205.
H: 5 ¼”
Price: $2,250
ANDRE LANSKOY (1902-1976) France
MAURICE BEAUFUME
PIERRE LECUIRE
“Cortege” 1959
64pp, 25 illustrations by Andre Lanskoy and Maurice Beaufume
Cortège is now often compared to “Jazz” as perhaps the finest example of
pochoir in the postwar period. Printed on Arches Vellum paper.
Dimensions:
Book: H: 18” x W: 13 3/8” x D: 1 7/8”
Custom leather box 2008: H: 20 ¼” x W: 15” x D: 4 ½”
Custom silk slipcase: H: 21 ½” x W: 15 5/8” x D: 5 3/8”
The artworks of André Lanskoy (1902-1976) are more than abstractions—they are juxtapositions of shapes, assemblages of colors and studies that explore the interfacing of language with visual imagery. A pioneer of Tachism, an artistic movement of the 1940s and 1950s also known as Art Informel or Lyrical Abstraction, Lanskoy emphasized the spontaneous in his paintings, combining surges of pure color with more subtle modulations. His efforts to translate language into abstract visual messages are most evident in two of his bold projects: a rare screen-printed textile and his vivid collages for Pierre Lecuire’s book, Cortège.
Born in Moscow, Lanskoy spent his youth in Russia; in 1921, he moved to Paris and studied at the Académie de la Grande-Chaumière. His first non-figurative works were painted in 1937, with his first Parisian exhibition of abstractions in 1944. As a painter, Lanskoy gave primacy to color, and this holds true for his textile design, Egypte. In 1946, French industrialist Jean Bauret invited several Tachist artists—including Serge Poliakoff, André Beaudin and Henri Michaux—to experiment with designs for furnishing textiles. One of Lanskoy’s contributions to this series was an expressive interpretation of the complex pictorial characters of ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics. The relationship between the Egyptian writing system and his own glyphs is mainly conceptual: the symbols Lanskoy invented have no inherent meaning, yet their careful placement suggests a text that is meant to be read. Contrasting with the neutral ground, the centered, vertical column is a grid of rectangular cells containing six repeating compilations of mysterious, hieroglyphic-inspired shapes. These cartouche-like compartments are bordered on each side by narrow strips of color blocks with voided linear abstractions. The intense purple and teal hues and vibrant reds and yellow are typical of Lanskoy’s exaltation of color.
Working within the theme of synthesizing language, color and form, Lanskoy tried his hand at an exciting tradition: the livre d’artiste. His first project was a collaboration with poet Pierre Lecuire; their masterpiece Cortège, arguably one of the finest artist-books ever produced, is a dazzling symbiosis of literary and visual material. Lecuire first met Lanskoy in 1948; ten years later, he would enlist his friend to illustrate the long prose poem. At Lecuire’s suggestion, Lanskoy created a series of twenty-four compositions for the book in the papiers collés method; his challenge was to interpret Lecuire’s writing into bold, graphic statements. The author’s opening lines set the tone for Lanskoy’s luminous color harmonies: “This book is a cortège. It has its colors, action and animation. It blazes, it proclaims one knows not which passion, which justice; it flows like the course of a navigation….” As he achieved with Egypte, the vibrant, saturated tints of the abstractions on these particular plates create a language of their own, while the lively arrangement of crisp and jagged forms shows an affinity with the rhythmic cadence of communication.
Remarkable for their dense bursts of color and unfamiliar shapes, the series of collages was masterfully executed in pochoir by colorist Maurice Beaufumé under Lanskoy’s personal direction. The bold, oversized text was printed by Marthe Fequet and Pierre Baudier, and Cortège was released in Paris, December 1959