Bracelet thumbnail 1
Bracelet thumbnail 2
+2
images
Image of Gallery in South Kensington
On display at V&A South Kensington
Jewellery, Rooms 91, The William and Judith Bollinger Gallery

Bracelet

1929 (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

The Bauhaus was a school for design founded in Germany in 1919, just after the First World War and in a period of political turbulence. It was to have a profound influence on 20th century industrial design.

With the staggering inflation in Germany goldsmiths were turning to base metals. At the Bauhaus, meanwhile, the emphasis was on design and work processes rather than the value of the materials.

Jewellery by the Bauhaus industrial designer Naum Slutzky reflects this age of machine technology and the new Modernist movement. His pieces embody function and pure form without ornamentation, in a novel combination of brass with chromium plating.

Naum Slutzky was born in Russia and emigrated to Vienna, where he studied engineering and art. In 1919 he was asked to lead the workshop for metalwork in the Bauhaus where he became a master goldsmith in 1922, and stayed until 1924. After an interim period in Vienna and Berlin, he moved to Hamburg where he remained until he went into exile and came to England. He taught product design at the Royal College of Art, London and the College of Arts and Crafts, Birmingham.


Object details

Categories
Object type
Materials and techniques
Chromium plated brass with haematite panel
Brief description
Chromium plated brass set with a panel of haematite, Germany, Hamburg, 1929, designed and made by Naum Slutzky.
Physical description
In the form of a wide band of closely linked pieces of round section tubing with a metal clasp and metal centre set with a panel of haematite.
Dimensions
  • Length: 18cm
  • Width: 4cm
Object history
Purchase from Frau Gesche Ochs, an important and early patron of Slutzky's.
Historical context
Naum Slutzky studied fine art, then engineering in Vienna before working as a goldsmith at the Wiener Werkstätte. In 1919, he was appointed as a teacher at the Bauhaus in Weimar, in the department of product design. Bauhaus principles of applying industrial imagery to domestic areas of design underpinned Slutzky's work as a jeweller and also formed a link with some of the starker motifs of contemporary French Art Deco jewellers. From 1927, he worked as an industrial designer until 1933 when he fled from Nazi Germany. Although he worked in conventional materials such as gold and cabochon stones, he was also fascinated by the newly commercially available chromium plated brass. Slutzky settled in England where he had a successful and influential career in various colleges including Dartington Hall in Devon, the Royal College of Art and Birmingham's College of Art and Design. Although he made very little jewellery between the mid-1930s and 1960, the early 1960s were again highly productive years when he worked principally in silver decorated with enamel and pebbles.
Summary
The Bauhaus was a school for design founded in Germany in 1919, just after the First World War and in a period of political turbulence. It was to have a profound influence on 20th century industrial design.

With the staggering inflation in Germany goldsmiths were turning to base metals. At the Bauhaus, meanwhile, the emphasis was on design and work processes rather than the value of the materials.

Jewellery by the Bauhaus industrial designer Naum Slutzky reflects this age of machine technology and the new Modernist movement. His pieces embody function and pure form without ornamentation, in a novel combination of brass with chromium plating.

Naum Slutzky was born in Russia and emigrated to Vienna, where he studied engineering and art. In 1919 he was asked to lead the workshop for metalwork in the Bauhaus where he became a master goldsmith in 1922, and stayed until 1924. After an interim period in Vienna and Berlin, he moved to Hamburg where he remained until he went into exile and came to England. He taught product design at the Royal College of Art, London and the College of Arts and Crafts, Birmingham.
Bibliographic reference
'Jewels and Jewellery' Clare Phillips, V&A Publications, 2000
Collection
Accession number
CIRC.1235-1967

About this object record

Explore the Collections contains over a million catalogue records, and over half a million images. It is a working database that includes information compiled over the life of the museum. Some of our records may contain offensive and discriminatory language, or reflect outdated ideas, practice and analysis. We are committed to addressing these issues, and to review and update our records accordingly.

You can write to us to suggest improvements to the record.

Suggest feedback

Record createdJanuary 30, 2003
Record URL
Download as: JSON