Beschreibung:

Josef HoffmannImportant and rare adjustable table lamp, model no. M 284, 1904 Silver-plated alpaca, fabric shade. 46 cm high, 24.5 cm diameter, fully extended Executed by the Wiener Werkstätte, Vienna, Austria. From the production of 2. Base marked with rose mark, Wiener Werkstätte and artist's monograms WW, JH. FootnotesProvenance Wiktor and Eugeniusz Jaworski, Zakopane, Poland, circa 1910 Eugenia Piekarska (nee Jaworska), Zakopane, Poland Thence by descent to Anna Piekarska, New Zealand, 2004 Bonhams wishes to thank Dr. Anne-Katrin Rossberg, Curator, Metal Collection and Wiener Werkstätte Archive, MAK, Vienna, for her kind assistance with the cataloguing of the present lot. The present adjustable table lamp, model no. M 284, is one of only two known productions, recorded in the model book at the Metal Collection and Wiener Werkstätte Archive, executed in November and December 1904, respectively. Since circa 1910, the lamp has belonged to the same family, originally gifted by a patron to the two brothers Wiktor and Eugeniusz Jaworski who were successful restaurateurs in Zakopane, Poland. Dr. Elisabeth Schmuttermeier classifies the early stylistic principals, expressing the avant-garde aspects, of Hoffmann's work, which anticipate art deco: 'about 1904 Josef Hoffman and Koloman Moser reached an extreme form of simplicity and geometric abstraction in their work, leading toward a pure reduction to elementary forms' (Peter Noever ed., Josef Hoffmann Designs, exh. cat., Austrian Museum of Applied Arts, Vienna, 1992, p. 75). The lamp was produced a year after the Wiener Werkstätte was founded, in 1903, and has an extreme form of simplicity and pure elementary forms. This also conveys a statement made by Charles Rennie Mackintosh when corresponding and discussing the Wiener Werkstätte with one of the co-founders, Fritz Waerndorfer, 'every object which you release must be most definitely marked by individuality, beauty, and the utmost accuracy of execution'. The design of the lamp fulfils this trichotomy, in its individuality, beauty, and certainly in the accuracy of its refined execution. The combination of Hoffmann's inimitable style and the Wiener Werkstätte uncompromising production standards, created not only a beautiful design but also an exceptional work of art too.