Wiener Werkstatte furniture

In the beginning of the 20 century the movement of Wiener
Werkstatten created remarkable furniture. Names like Josef Hoffman,
Kolomann Moser and Otto Wagner are connected to the furniture style
of this movement. The aim of my research is to learn more about the
coatings and surface of the time. I recently started, in
co-operation with Doerner Institute Munich, to analyse the coatings
of wooden plates, which belong to the "Wiener Werkstatte".

These 70 plates have almost the same size and 20 of theme have
descriptions with the logo of the "Wiener Werkstatte", the two
overlapping W's. The plates have possible once served as sample of
veneers and coatings used by the "Wiener Werkstatten". My research
is for the moment concentrating on two plates of oak with a black
coating of shellac and with a blue pigment bound with an animal fat
into the pores. In the museum for applied science in Vienna I
examined two furniture of Josef Hoffmann, which have the same type
of fat bonded blue pigments in the wooden pore.

I am wondering if somebody have seen these kind of decoration in
combination with the arts and crafts movement.  And if somebody can
explain which intention they have had with this decoration?

Annette Ihle
Technical University of Munich, Germany


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 19:36
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