Koloman Moser - Design Vienna and the Wiener Werkstätte New York Thursday, March 3, 2011 | Phillips

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  • Exhibited

     "Wiener Werkstätte Jewelry," Neue Galerie, New York, March 27-June 30, 2008; "Glanzstücke: Emilie Flöge und der Schmuck der Wiener Werkstätte," Wien Museum, Vienna, November 13, 2008-February 22, 2009
     

  • Literature

    "Hohe Warte," Vienna, 1906, 1, 2.Jg.; Werner J. Schweiger, Wiener Werkstätte: Design in Vienna, 1903–1932, New York, 1984, p. 215, fig. CL; Peter Noever, ed., Yearning for Beauty: The Wiener Werkstätte and the Stoclet House, Ostfildern-Ruit, 2006, p. 61 for the drawing; Janis Staggs, ed., Wiener Werkstätte: Jewelry, Ostfildern-Ruit, 2008, illustrated pp. 38 and 84, and p. 84 and for the drawing; Paul Asenbaum, et al., Glanzstücke: Emilie Flöge und der Schmuck der Wiener Werkstätte, exh. cat., Wien Museum, Vienna, 2009, p. 73

  • Catalogue Essay


    The Wiener Werkstätte Model Book page for the present lot, registered at the MAK Vienna, lists two known examples of this pendant designed by Koloman Moser. The first, later illustrated in a 1906 issue of Hohe Warte, was executed in March 1905 on the occasion of the Secession exhibition in Berlin that year. The Model Book attests to a second example, the present lot, having been produced in 1912. Stylized flowers and foliate motifs figure prominently in the jewelry of the Wiener Werkstätte and in nearly every other area of its production, including textiles, glass, and graphics. Lest nature run wild, the artists of the Wiener Werkstätte kept petals and vines in check--literally. In a brooch designed by Josef Hoffmann, illustrated on page 102 of the Neue Galerie’s Wiener Werkstätte Jewelry, gilt silver bellflowers push against a rectangular frame; they can’t grow farther. Illustrated in the same catalogue, Koloman Moser’s pendant hangs freely. Although supported by two circular stems at top and bottom, his gold seed pods grow outside any frame. One bears the inscription “21. Mai 1912”--a memorable day no doubt. Rather than abstract their form, Moser rendered each pod with lucidity and vigor, a fitting celebration of life, be it due day, birthday, or engagement.

37

Very rare and important pendant, model no. G 325

ca. 1912

18 karat gold.

Pendant: 2 3/4 × 1 in. (7 × 35.6 × cm.); chain: 10 3/4 in. (27.3 cm.) long
Executed by the Wiener Werkstätte, Austria. From the production of two. One seed pod engraved with "21. Mai 1912" and stem impressed with "WW," gold hallmark, and gold mark 750.

Estimate
$350,000 - 400,000 

Design Vienna and the Wiener Werkstätte

3 March 2011
New York