Amazing Handmade Watering Can, Designed by Carl Auböck
View Similar Items
Amazing Handmade Watering Can, Designed by Carl Auböck
About the Item
- Creator:Werkstätte Carl Auböck (Designer)
- Dimensions:Height: 8 in (20.32 cm)Width: 23 in (58.42 cm)
- Place of Origin:
- Period:
- Date of Manufacture:1954
- Condition:very good original condition, signed.
- Seller Location:Vienna, AT
- Reference Number:Seller: 951stDibs: LU101461222380
Werkstätte Carl Auböck
In Vienna’s Neubau district, a beautiful Biedermeier townhouse has been home to the Werkstätte Carl Auböck for more than 100 years. Inside the workshop, where production continues to this day, countless objects line the shelves, walls, tabletops and desktops.
The Viennese artist and designer Carl Auböck II was one of the quirkiest and most delightful and collectible of modern designers. A rather odd duck in the world of decorative arts, he was a peculiar talent whose specialties included smaller desk accessories and tabletop pieces such as corkscrews, paperweights, letter openers, bookends and bottle stoppers. He rendered these pieces in a combination of metal — most often brass — and such elemental materials as leather, knobby wood and animal horn, creating forms that could be almost Surrealist, from hands and feet to keys, birds and amoebae.
As a boy, Auböck was precocious and artistic. He studied drawing and at the same time trained in the workshop of his father, Karl Heinrich Auböck, a popular maker of traditional bronze figurines and collectibles. In 1919, Carl II went to Germany to study at the Bauhaus, where he was a pupil of the progressive artist and theorist Johannes Itten. While the Bauhaus is most associated with the rigidly ordered, functionalist architecture of its directors Walter Gropius and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, the school was in reality a liberal, spirited place — a crucible for imaginative, playful and avant-garde art and design. It was this spirit that imbued Carl II’s work from the time he left in 1921.
In 1922 or ’23, Carl Auböck II returned to Vienna to help care for his ailing father, and he took over the business. He created the Werkstätte Carl Auböck and a legacy that earned his objects cult status among collectors. The business was passed on to his descendants, who run the atelier that is still in operation today. Today, objects designed by Carl II make up 90 percent of Werkstätte Carl Auböck’s production, joined by the creations of architect and designer Carl IV, his grandson.
Vintage Auböck designs have a special character, a patina that only emphasizes how much the pieces have been loved and used. Carl Aubock II’s small furniture items — leather- or caned-sling magazine racks; free-edge wooden side tables with tubular bronze legs; wicker serving trolleys with turned beechwood wheels — are elegant and purposeful. His bijoux desktop objects, library tools, ashtrays and barware pieces evince a kind of mirthful practicality. They seem to ask: “If you need a corkscrew, or a paperweight, or a candlestick, why not make it fun as well as functional?” And indeed, why not?
Find a collection of vintage Werkstätte Carl Auböck mirrors, seating, tables, decorative objects and other furniture on 1stDibs.
- Rare Watering Can in Brass and Copper by Carl Auböck, 1950'sBy Werkstätte Carl AuböckLocated in Limhamn, Skåne länRare Watering Can in Brass and Copper by Carl Auböck, 1950's Additional Information: Material: Brass and copper Style: Mid century, Scandinavia Produced in Denmark by Illums Bolighu...Category
20th Century Danish Mid-Century Modern Garden Ornaments
MaterialsCopper
- Zinc Watering CanLocated in New York, NYZinc watering can. Large decorative vintage American 2.5 gallon watering can to be filled with overflowing spring snd summer blooms or for watering tasks. Pe...Category
Early 20th Century American Garden Ornaments
MaterialsZinc
- Copper Watering CanLocated in Los Angeles, CAVintage watering can of copper. The sleek lines and graceful handle make this piece a compliment to any garden setting as a decorative or practical ...Category
20th Century Garden Ornaments
MaterialsCopper
- Very Rare Brass Watering Can with Movable Spider, 1950s, AustriaBy Werkstätte Carl AuböckLocated in Nürnberg, BayernVery rare brass watering can with a small spider as decoration.Category
Vintage 1950s Austrian Mid-Century Modern Garden Ornaments
MaterialsBrass
- Round Copper Watering CanLocated in Los Angeles, CAA lovely vintage watering can, fully functional and ideal for the inside plants, a greenhouse area or your smaller garden plants... pretty enough ...Category
20th Century Mid-Century Modern Garden Ornaments
MaterialsCopper
- Watering Can , circa 1950sLocated in Wien, ATWatering can Polished and stove enameled. Copper and brass.Category
Vintage 1950s Austrian Mid-Century Modern Garden Ornaments
MaterialsBrass, Copper