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  Maison Ostertag Important French Art Deco Jewel Mounted Covered Box c.1925

  MAISON OSTERTAG (Place Vendome, Paris) 1920’s and 30’s
  ARNOLD OSTERTAG (Jeweler / Designer)
  VERGER FRERES (maker)

  Art Deco jewel mounted mechanical covered box  c. 1925

  Of rectangular stepped form, the black enamel box hinged and accented at the top with a gold bezel mounted sugar loaf shaped coral; spring loaded to pull down and reveal a cinnabar red enamel interior, the exterior with gold champlevé set highly stylized geometric initials and further ornamented with geometric square cut out gold applied handles embellished with salmon coral beads and red enamel bands, all resting on a recessed agate base and conforming black onyx base punctuated with a gold bezel mounted sugar loaf shaped coral on each corner.

  Marks: Ostertag (on a gold plaque inset into the underside of the onyx base)

  H: 4″ x W: 3 1/2″ x D: 3 1/2″

  Arnold Ostertag was a Swiss-born jeweler who became a dominant force in the creation of fine jewels and objects in Paris during the 1920s and 30s. After studying dentistry in Chicago, Ostertag embarked on a world tour and, while traveling through India, became fascinated by jewels. He later settled in Paris and opened a very successful salon on the Place Vendome. In design and quality, Ostertag’s jewels, which frequently featured Indian themes, rivaled the production of many of the most famous Parisian jewelry houses. In fact, the renowned clockmaker George Verger/Verger Freres, produced wonderful clocks and mechanical objects for Ostertag, as well as for many other world renowned jewelers and likely masterminded the mechanism of the Art Deco box above. In addition to making pieces for Ostertag, Maison Verger made pieces for Cartier, LaCloche, Marzo, Boucheron, Hermes, Van Cleef & Arpels, Chaumet, Mauboussin, etc. Arnold Ostertag was popular on the international front and made many trips to America spending time in both New York, as well as Los Angeles where he befriended many Hollywood stars. He also received commissions during his trips to make exquisite custom jewelry and precious jeweled objects such as this fine Art Deco box.

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  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.