by ‘C. Hagenauer & Merkel’
Thread Tin/Box (or Werbdose)
circa 1905 (?)
Once sold within the halls of the Viennese department store Herzmansky, this crisply-intact werbdose now stands as a posthumous example of the glorious aesthetics created from the marriage between the Jugendstil and the Wiener Werkstätte. No single detail may be defined as being distinctly that of the former or the latter, for the marriage of elements is seamless and subtle (though the two artistic styles in themselves already shared similar aesthetic foundations). The foliage cradling the central heart vignette, for example, echoes familiar features found in Carl Otto Czeschka’s postcard illustrations, including the serif-less typeface he often employed to design the postcards’ messages. Also instilled in this box is, undoubtedly, a youthful, playful touch. A large portion of the Jugendstil œuvre focused on the light-hearted, uninhibited and gaily artistic side to creating ‘art’, or indeed anything malleable and affected by one’s instant ‘self’. Whereas members of the Wiener Werkstätte deemed greater importance upon the individual character of the work of art itself (strongly independent of its creator), Jugenstil enthusiasts (for want of a better word) placed more value in a work’s immediate visual vernacular, felt through the senses. It is for this reason therefore that a more ‘Jugendstil’ approach may be sensed through this box’s combination of repoussé (or perhaps engraved) surface texture and its neatly-contained energy suggested from both its imagery and purpose. Again, the influence of neither art movement may be detected with certainty, but it is nothing short of pleasure for any connoisseur of this artefact’s particular time period to continually search for new possible clues, no matter how small.
