Aubock Chess Set

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.

There’s no better way to wind down after a week of work than with a well-designed antique, new or vintage game.

A beautifully designed contemporary or vintage game can introduce an element of fun to any room in your home — and it doesn’t have to be limited to the game room. The right mid-century or antique chess set or backgammon board can mean high stakes as well as high style for any entertainment room or cheery home bar area, with works from the period proving as pivotal to relaxation as they are eye-catching statement pieces.

While trends come and go, a unique vintage games table never goes out of style. Chess has an enduring and universal appeal, of which we were reminded following 2020’s successful Netflix show The Queen’s Gambit, while classic tric-trac tables are showstoppers in a secretive way, affording party guests a treasury of gaming under the guise of a fine neoclassical writing desk. But in shopping for the latter, strategize your next move carefully — an 18th-century tric-trac table designed in the Louis XVI style can get costly. Gambling games are always on trend, and, in a pinch, you can turn your standard console table or coffee table into a platform for roulette, cards or craps to introduce a little cheeky fun at your next soiree.

Table games such as pool, foosball and Ping-Pong — which is getting a makeover in the hands of today’s designers — can transform your already winning game room, while integrating games or games tables in any corner of your home can support your effort to make every bit of your space more warm and inviting. Browse a vast collection of antique, new and vintage games today on 1stDibs.