Table, designed by Richard Riemerschmid, German (Munich), 1898-1899. Stained oak.

Table of abstract triangular form with canted corners, on three inter-connected legs. Stained oak.

This table was probably designed for the Music Room at the Deutsche Kunstaustellung, Dresden, 1899. The abstract form of the table, and the sense of movement which it suggests, may have been intended to give visual expression to some of the qualities of music. Although the organic quality of the design echoes the more familiar, curviliniar Art Nouveau, the use of plain oak, the simplified construction and appearance, and, especially, the thin, flat, undecorated surfaces represented something novel. The table was obviously part of an ensemble with a very particular ornamental intention.

It is worth noting that this table was displayed in an 'Art' exhibition.

Historical significance: Richard Riemerschmid produced inventive and original work. 'Jugendstil' was the name given to the new Art movement in Germany; it derived from the Munich art magazine 'Jugend' which, from 1896, published many illustrations of work in that style. Munich was also Riemerschmid's native city and, like all German designers of the period, his work was closely identified with the city in which he worked.

In advanced German circles it was a matter of consensus that interior furnishings were more than decoration; an object such as this table deserved 'to be acknowledged as a work of art, if it is marked by an artistic individuality' (P. Schultze-Naumberg, p.493; see References). This breaking down of the boundaries was one of the most important and influential aspects of German design in the period and was central to the special identity of the firm that made and sold the table. It was typical that Riemerschmid's formal training was as a painter, and that his first furniture designs dated only from 1895.

A closely related table, but with four legs and a square top, which had belonged to the German painter Paul Roloff (1877-1951), was sold by the Quittenbaum auction house, Munich, 11 Dec. 2012, lot 6.

Riemerschmid's Music Room was one of several designed for group exhibitions of the Vereinigte Werkstätten für Kunst und Handwerk GMBH, (United workshops for art in craft), whose other leading members included Bruno Paul and Bernhard Pankok. Founded in 1897 and inspired by British arts and crafts guild workshops, the German company differed from its British forerunners in several ways: it accepted that the function of the designer (or artist) was to give form to objects, not to make them, and thus craft practice was not central to its ideology and machines were freely accepted; it also lacked a socialist political agenda, instead promoting pan-German reform of design and manufacture; and, above all, it achieved striking commercial success over many decades, opening branches in other German cities and selling by catalogue (J. Keskett, pp. 46-47 & K. Hiesinger, pp. 12-15, see References).

The design of this table is rooted in the Jugendstil style, a North European version of the Art Nouveau which flourished about 1900. Its design was both architectural and especially advanced for its date. The German designer, Richard Riemerschmid (1868-1957), incorporated novel features such as the use of oak (rather than a tropical or patterned wood), straightforward construction and flat, undecorated surfaces.

Riemerschmid designed the table (and the chair in the smaller image) for the Music Room at the Deutsche Kunstaustellung ('German Art Exhibition') in Dresden in 1899. Although the table was made in Germany, the chair was made by Liberty & Co, London, between 1899 and 1900.

W.1-1990