Josef HOFFMANN (1870-1956)
Made by Jakob SOULEK
Vienna 1911
Buffet in ebony-stained polished pearwood, its two doors and four feet displaying a carved bas relief of luxuriant festoons of black mulberry leaves and fruit in parted curtain array. The plateau’s bevelled edge on three sides is graced by marquetry of mother-of-pearl showing stylized flowers flanked by barrettes in varied shades.
This remarkable piece with its clean strong-box lines was built the year the Palais Stoclet in Brussels was completed (1905-1911) – a masterwork manifesto of the Wiener Werkstätte that saw Hoffmann directing input by all the members, including Gustav Klimt, who designed the dining room wall mosaics.
Hence its architectural and decorative resolution carry over from it: right-angle volumes contrast with a highly refined treatment of surfaces, anticipating Art Déco.
Originally designed as a six-door sideboard with four uprights at its back carrying a floral pattern curtain by Wilhelm Jonash, the piece was rebuilt at an unknown date to produce this two-door buffet stripped of uprights and curtain.
Height 92 cm, width 116 cm, depth 65,5 cm
The full dining room suite – six-door sideboard, oval table, the bevelled edge of its top also with mother-of-pearl inlay, six chairs – was exhibited at the Austrian Decorative Arts spring show in Vienna in 1912.
The segmenting of this long six-door sideboard consisted in separating the right hand two-door end with its four feet and covering its left side using the left end side panel from the original piece, with its oval motif, and the ornate inlaid mother-of-pearl bevelled edge. In the same way, the sides of the feet on the left with their plaquettes of carved pearwood are those of the original left end. The two uprights at the back for the curtain were simply removed and their hollows filled.
Apart from the missing curtain uprights then, all of the elements are components of the original.
Traces of the rebuilding work can barely be seen and consist of:
- an internal panel lining the left side for reinforcement, fixed in place by two battens above and below the shelf, unlike the right side which is as originally built;
- the carved plaquettes on the sides of both left feet, which derive from the original left end, are recessed by a few millimetres, thus indicating that the feet in the middle of the sideboard were a fraction thinner than those at either end;
- as the photos show, the inlaid pearl shell floral motif on the bevelled edge is set back slightly to the left in relation to the bead surround of the doors, whereas at the left end of the buffet it is set back to the right, and centred on the central body. This detail gives decisive proof that the buffet is indeed the right hand end of the original six-door sideboard.
There is a later and simplified version of this buffet consisting of a pair of two-door buffets with rigged curtain at their back, with identical carved motifs on their doors and feet, but without the inlaid pearl shell on the bevelled edge and the oval motif on the sides; matched with a crockery dresser with glass doors. (Galerie Bel étage, Vienna)
Their measurements differ slightly from those of this buffet: height 92 cm or 136 cm with curtain uprights, width 117 cm (as against 116 cm), depth 60 cm (as against 65,5 cm).
The pair of buffets is undocumented, excepting a publication by Galerie Bel étage for the Biennale des Antiquaires de Paris in 2008, which described them as ‘Pieces originating from a dining room suite made for the Österreichisches Kunstgewerbe spring show in 1912’, and a caption in a 2021 catalogue of the MAK, Vienna, for an exhibition in which one was shown, describing it more precisely as a ‘Buffet after a design for the dining room in the spring exhibition at the AMAI, 1912’.
After the discovery in 2021 of the third buffet, on which our study focuses, we are inclined to believe that this pair of buffets was made partly from components – principally the two pairs of doors – left over after the segmenting of the six-door sideboard. The mother-of-pearl inlay having been used on the third buffet explains its absence, given its cost.
It is very likely that the unusual length of the six-door sideboard – 332 cm – was the main reason for its having been re-worked to produce several pieces. The decision to do so would have been taken either by Hoffmann himself, in the event of the sideboard not having found a buyer, or by the buyer or his/her heirs, desirous of sharing out the original.
Whatever the case, the skill in workmanship required for transforming such an expensive original points to the hand of a master cabinetmaker, who in all logic must be Jakob Soulek, its maker, since he was active until the mid-1930s. He would have worked to a brief from Hoffmann, even after the Wiener Werkstätte was dissolved in 1932.
The perfect proportions of these three sideboards, taken separately for one or in pairs for the other two, speak for themselves.
Here’s hoping that our publication will encourage a specialist to undertake research in the archives of the MAK and that it will confirm our hypothesis.
Condition: The buffet was recovered in a good state of conservation, considering its fragility; for the mother-of-pearl inlay some 20% was replaced (10 flowers out of a total 49). The decision was taken to conserve micro-scratches, bumps and wear-and-tear, and after a clean-up simply give the whole a light waxing.
A complete report of restoration work is available on demand.
Provenance: Undisclosed estate, Alsace.
Sold by Ader, Nordman & Dominique, Hôtel Drouot, Paris 12 February 2021.
Exhibition: Frühjahrsausstellung Österreichisches Kunstgewerbe (Austrian Decorative Arts spring show), Vienna, 1912.
Bibliography:
– Deutsche Kunst und Dekoration – Volume 1912-13, publisher Alexander Koch, Darmstadt. The original 6-door sideboard before its transformation into 2 doors figures on pages 182 and 183.
– Innen Dekoration – December 1912 issue, publisher Alexander Koch, Darmstadt. The original 6-door sideboard before its transformation into 2 doors figures on page 463.
– The International Studio – illustrated magazine of fine and applied art – N° 237, December 1912, publisher Office.
-Josef Hoffmann 1870-1956 : Progress through Beauty : The guide to his Oeuvre , MAK, Vienna, 2021, variant page 197.