Art by Medium: Metal

Paul Dachsel was the son-in-law of Alfred Stellmacher, the founder of Amphora Pottery company in Turn-Teplitz, then in Austria. Very little is known or was written about Dachsel. He served as a designer at Amphora from 1893 until 1905. There, he was instrumental in creating new motifs and designs inspired by the voluptuous, organic Art Nouveau style, as well as incorporating Japanese shapes, such as the sake bottle, to a traditional Victorian vase body. Very soon, most of the vases had converted to Art Nouveau in shape and decoration. In 1905, Dachsel founded his own pottery studio, Kunstkeramik Paul Dachsel. He continued to draw inspiration from Art Nouveau and created designs that favored simple forms elaborated with applied handles, rims, and ornaments. In many examples, he favored tertiary colors and folded, flat, and soft-edged shapes, giving his work a fairy-tale quality. Dachsel’s ceramic studio remained in business until 1911. The esteemed Viennese retailer and manufacturer of porcelain and ceramic ware, Ernst Wahliss Kunst, Porzellan und Faience Fabrik rolled out its Serapis Wahliss...

One of Amphora’s founders, Alfred Stellmacher, produced vases which nearly always feature a spider and web, but it is the Semiramis series of the fi...

One of Amphora’s founders, Alfred Stellmacher, produced vases which nearly always feature a spider and web, but it is the Semiramis series of the fi...

One of Amphora’s founders, Alfred Stellmacher, produced vases which nearly always feature a spider and web, but it is the Semiramis series of the fi...

One of Amphora’s founders, Alfred Stellmacher, produced vases which nearly always feature a spider and web, but it is the Semiramis series of the fi...

MYSTERIES OF THE OCEAN, Strongbox by Alfred Louis Achille Daguet, 1907, the iron box clad in brass sheets worked in repousse, finely chased and adorned with colored glass cabochons and secured by copper and brass nails, marked verso “4” painted in yellow; key is included but not original. Even before the likes of Jacques Cousteau, the vast oceanic world provided an infinite source of fascination and imagination for artists exploring the possibilities of the Art Nouveau style. The sea and all of its creatures combined a sense of mystery with a constant quest to know more. The seemingly endless amounts of sea star species, which magically regenerate lost body parts or even an entire organism from a single appendage, were just the sort of inspiration for Alfred Daguet. With his skilled hand, Daguet presents a fantastical ocean reef...