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| Antiques & Collectibles |
Viennese Revival
Dana Micucci
04/01/2004
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Furniture also has attracted
sophisticated buyers’ attention. “Collectors will pay a premium for the
best furniture by Hoffmann and Moser—whether a table, chair, bench or sitting
group,” says Michelle Bucheit-Miller of Chicago’s Rita Bucheit gallery. “Demand
for these pieces has been increasing. Moser’s chairs, for example, which display
such a stark geometry, were super-modern for their time. A single Moser chair in
a room stands out like a piece of sculpture.”
 | | LAQUERED BENTWOOD seven-ball side chairs, designed by Wiener Werkstätte
cofounder Josef Hoffmann |
A circa 1901 painted beech and
cane armchair designed by Moser for the Purkersdorf Sanatorium sold for $548,137
at Christie’s London in 2000, one of the highest prices ever paid for early 20th
century Viennese design. Iconic bentwood designs representing the purest
expressions of a designer’s aesthetic, such as Hoffmann’s streamlined,
stained-beech Sitzmachine chair, can fetch thousands at auction—indeed one sold
at Sotheby’s in December for $10,200. Coffeehouse tables and chairs by some of
the workshop’s lesser-known designers can be had for under $5,000.
Collectors also are discovering the distinctive beauty of Viennese glassware
by Hoffmann, Moser, Peche, Otto Prutscher and other Wiener Werkstätte designers
who produced a range of objects in a range of styles. These pieces encompassed
iridescent Art Nouveau-inspired vases, spare, streamlined bowls and boxes, and
cut-glass table services, as well as etched and overlaid cameo goblets whose
repeating geometric patterns were designed in collaboration with such noted
Bohemian glasshouses as Loetz, Meyr’s Neff and Moser of Karlsbad.
These
fragile creations, which can be purchased for $1,000 to $50,000, depending upon
the designer and their rarity and importance, are still undervalued for their
quality craftsmanship and innovative designs, according to New York dealer Barry
Friedman.
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