the Wiener Werkstätte: Arnold Nechansky

Arnold Nechansky

Frohe Ostern! (Postcard no. 794)

circa 1912

     Classically elongated, from the typeface to the egg and the gazelle-like duo, Nechansky’s style enunciates its subjects with an elegant flow of form. The individual components of the illustration are drawn to simulate each others’ visual vernacular, enabling each one (with a bit of imagination) to ‘sidle’ into the two-dimensional skin of another, therefore uniting the design completely and without interruption. The letters, for example, mirror the forms of the ladies, while the ladies themselves precariously perch with a slim featheriness that echoes that of the F all the way to the !. Even the red eggshell, cradled by the woman in white, creates one of the three stepping stones helping to draw the eye smoothly across the postcard, beginning naturally with the uncoiling of beaded necklaces at the top; followed by the great yawning central ‘O’ (perhaps acting as the woman’s seat cushion); and circling (or might one say ‘oval-ing’?) right down to the standing woman’s balloon-like pouffe, only to draw the eye back once more to the top - to begin again, as one should (thrice) on Easter Day.

Cristobal Balenciaga

Cristobal Balenciaga

Striped Taffeta dress

circa 1945

     A marvel of understated casual class. Swathing the female frame in sweeping, slightly sloping stripes, the structure of this day-wear dress acts to strengthen and elongate a lady’s gestures (and especially her strides) with but a flit and a flutter of the uncanny texture of taffeta. With just a step or a readjustment of the leg, the folds of this type of textile pleasingly chafe alongside one another with a crisp vigour to match the boldly stretching and yawning stripes throughout. And as a ribbon would securely clutch together the stems of a bouquet of striated tulips, so does the satin belt nip the waist of this seemingly many-petaled creation, leaving at liberty the drooping sleeves to sway with natural ease.

Vestiges of Vietnam

by (unknown) Vietnamese jeweller(s)

Pair of silver and wicker floral-motif bracelets 

circa 1909

     In terms of creating a bracelet, it is an aesthetically clever (albeit difficult) stroke of design to combine, all in one, the elements of lucidity, obstinacy and elegance. Of the former, there lies in the two half-way joints of either of these bracelets a seamless ‘visual’ soldering of wood and metal. Without a true understanding of the different tensions and malleabilities inherent to such opposite natural materials, the four joints of this pair would not stand out to be as lucidly circular or as seemingly of the same ‘core’ as, perhaps, intended. The case is similar for the two following elements of design: the incised and curved columnar weaves of flowering foliage each add a balanced touch of both solidity and grace to the otherwise unassuming shape and characteristically fragile function of the bracelets. Nameless though the designer(s) behind the making of this pair may be, they deserve all the same a posthumous nod of approval from anyone with even the slightest appreciation and attentiveness towards quality jewellery design, despite whether these bracelets please any personal tastes.