Napkin Ring
1905-1910 (made)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
Josef Hoffmann studied architecture at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna under Carl von Hasenauer and Otto Wagner and was influenced by their theories of a functional, modernist architecture. After winning the Rome prize in 1895 and joining Wagner's office, he established his own office in 1898 and taught at the Vienna Kunstgewerbeschule from 1899 to 1936. He was a founding member of the Vienna Secession, an avant-garde group of artists and architects. In 1903 he founded the Wiener Werkstätte with Koloman Moser. Hoffmann's earliest works reflect the Vienna Secession's variant of Art Nouveau and his later work shows a pioneering use of geometric and abstract design. His most famous building, the Palais Stoclet in Brussels, built 1905-1911, exemplifies the ideal of the 'Gesamtkunstwerk' or 'total work of art'.
Object details
| Categories | |
| Object type | |
| Materials and techniques | Silver with green jasper. |
| Brief description | Silver napkin ring with green jasper mount, Vienna, 1905-1910, made by the Wiener Werkstatte, designed by Josef Hoffmann. |
| Physical description | A rectangular section of green jasper is mounted across the curved surface of the ring. The remainder of the surface decoration consists of a double row of pierced rectangular sections within which there is a raised lobe in one half of each of these sections, connected by straight and curved strips of silver to the opposite edge. |
| Dimensions |
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| Marks and inscriptions | Engraved with marks for the Wiener Werkstatte, the Austrian discharge mark and the town mark for Vienna. |
| Summary | Josef Hoffmann studied architecture at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna under Carl von Hasenauer and Otto Wagner and was influenced by their theories of a functional, modernist architecture. After winning the Rome prize in 1895 and joining Wagner's office, he established his own office in 1898 and taught at the Vienna Kunstgewerbeschule from 1899 to 1936. He was a founding member of the Vienna Secession, an avant-garde group of artists and architects. In 1903 he founded the Wiener Werkstätte with Koloman Moser. Hoffmann's earliest works reflect the Vienna Secession's variant of Art Nouveau and his later work shows a pioneering use of geometric and abstract design. His most famous building, the Palais Stoclet in Brussels, built 1905-1911, exemplifies the ideal of the 'Gesamtkunstwerk' or 'total work of art'. |
| Collection | |
| Accession number | M.16-1982 |
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| Record created | August 17, 2007 |
| Record URL |
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