Cruet, electroplated nickel silver with two glass bottles, Vienna, 1905-10, mark of the Wiener Werkstatte, probably designed by Josef Hoffmann.

Cruet, electroplated nickel silver. The basket is elliptical in cross section, the upper surface of which has two circular holes in order to support the glass bottles containing oil and vinegar, while the base is entirely plain. The side is a continuous wall with an invisible seam at one end, decorated by four rows of square perforations in the upper section of the wall which provides a lattice work band around the body of the vessel.

The basket is supported on four feet, two of which are small rectangular projections in the same plane as the wall of the vessel and placed at either end. The other two feet are projections of the two sides of the handle, extending slightly below the base of the vessel.

The handle is positioned across the middle of the vessel between the two cruet bottles. The external edges flare outwards towards the base. The inner edges are perpendicular meeting the top crossbar at right angles. The broader edges of the handle are at right angles to the surface of the basket.

The glass cruets comprise of a lower cylindrical section which sits inside the basket, surmounted by a wider conical section, the base of which forms a supporting lip against the upper surface of the metal basket. The handles are a triangular section of glass with the longer edge adjacent to the sloping surface of the upper section. The spouts are simply a distortion of the neck's circumference. The stoppers are spherical with a frosted, cylindrical section sitting inside the mouth of the vessel.

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'.

M.20-1982