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.
$760 / item
Carl Auböck Model #3794/1 'Aorta' Brass Vase
By Werkstätte Carl Auböck
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Carl Auböck Model #3794/1 'Aorta' Brass Vase Designed in the 1950s, this incredibly refined and sculptural Viennese vase is executed in polished and darkly patinated brass by Werkst...
Brass
Glass Vase with Leather Collar by Werkstätte Carl Auböck, Austria 1960s
By Werkstätte Carl Auböck
Located in Berlin, DE
Sculptural glass vase by Werkstätte Carl Auböck, with wide flattened body and cylindrical neck wrapped in hand-stitched black leather. The contrast between clear blown glass and the ...
Leather, Glass
Carl Auböck #3793 "Gourd" Vase or Bookend, Austria, 2022
By Werkstätte Carl Auböck
Located in Berlin, DE
Carl Auböck #3793 "Gourd" vase or bookend, Austria, 2022.
Brass
Body Vase by Werkstätte Carl Auböck, Patinated Brass, Austria, 2022
By Werkstätte Carl Auböck
Located in Berlin, DE
Carl Auböck #3791 "Body" vase, Austria, 2022.
Brass
Moon Vase by Werkstätte Carl Auböck, Patinated Brass, Austria, 2022
By Werkstätte Carl Auböck
Located in Berlin, DE
Carl Auböck #3789 "Moon" vase, Austria, 2022.
Brass
Glove Vase by Werkstätte Carl Auböck, Patinated Brass, Austria, 2022
By Werkstätte Carl Auböck
Located in Berlin, DE
Carl Auböck #3788 "Glove" vase, Austria, 2022.
Brass
Carl Auböck #3795 "Aorta Crescent" Vase, Austria, 2022
By Werkstätte Carl Auböck
Located in Berlin, DE
Carl Auböck #3795 "Aorta Crescent" vase, Austria, 2022.
Brass
Carl Auböck #4061 Brass Sculpture 'Architect', Patinated, Austria
By Werkstätte Carl Auböck
Located in Berlin, DE
Carl Auböck #4061 Sculpture "Architect", Austria.
Brass
Brass Bird Sculpture by Werkstätte Carl Auböck, Patinated Finish
By Werkstätte Carl Auböck
Located in Berlin, DE
Carl Auböck #4366 sculpture "Bird", Austria.
Brass
Carl Auböck #4273-1 Paperweight "Foot", Austria 2022
By Werkstätte Carl Auböck
Located in Berlin, DE
Carl Auböck #4273-1 Paperweight "Foot", Austria 2022.
Brass
Carl Auböck #7127 Letter Opener "Flat", Austria, 2022
By Werkstätte Carl Auböck, Werkstätte Carl Auböck
Located in Berlin, DE
Carl Auböck #7127 letter opener "Flat", Austria 2022.
Brass
Carl Auböck Pair of #3470 Candlesticks, Austria 2022
By Werkstätte Carl Auböck
Located in Berlin, DE
Carl Auböck pair of #3470 candlesticks, Austria 2022.
Brass
Carl Auböck #5072-2 Paperweight "Chain", Austria 2022
By Werkstätte Carl Auböck
Located in Berlin, DE
#5072-2 Paperweight in the shape of a chain by Carl Auböck. Made of nickel plated steel. Austria. New.
Steel, Nickel
Carl Auböck #7234 Candlestick, Brass, Patinated Finish, Austria, 2022
By Werkstätte Carl Auböck
Located in Berlin, DE
Carl Auböck #7234 candlestick, Austria, 2022.
Brass
Carl Auböck Set of #7252 Large Fruit Basket and #7226 Small Fruit Basket
By Werkstätte Carl Auböck
Located in Berlin, DE
#7252 Big fruit basket and #7226 small fruit basket by Carl Auböck in patinated brass. New. The measurements given apply to the large basket. The small one measures: 27cm depth - 20c...
Brass
$1,053 / item
Carl Auböck Pair of #3469 Candlesticks, Austria 2022
By Werkstätte Carl Auböck
Located in Berlin, DE
Carl Auböck Pair of #3469 Candlesticks, Austria 2022. The price is for one pair.
Brass
Carl Auböck V "Luna Futura" Vase
By Werkstätte Carl Auböck
Located in Chalk Hill, PA
A beautiful one-of-a-kind hand crafted vase by Viennese artist Carl Auböck V. Read the artists statement below. "The vase "luna futura" is the largest vessel I have yet created. Th...
Brass, Bronze
Carl Aubock Framed Hand #5275 for Neiman Marcus
By Werkstätte Carl Auböck
Located in San Francisco, CA
Carl Aubock design solid brass ballerina hand model #5275, Austria. Lovely decorative desk or table top object by the master Carl Aubock. Mounted on...
Brass
Brass Key Corkscrew by Carl Aubock
By Werkstätte Carl Auböck
Located in Sag Harbor, NY
For five generations the design house of Carl Auböck has been turning ordinary objects like paperweights and bookends into extraordinary objects of beauty in an old town house in Vienna. Mixing old world craftsmanship with Bauhaus design, materials such as brass, leather, wood and horn are transformed in eccentric, imaginative modern objects. This solid brass key...
Brass
$420 / item
Nutcracker Style 1 by Carl Aubock
By Werkstätte Carl Auböck
Located in Sag Harbor, NY
For five generations the design house of Carl Aubock has been turning ordinary objects like paperweights and bookends into extraordinary objects of beauty in an old town house in Vie...
Brass
Sculptural Hand Tabletop Accessory by Carl Aubock
By Werkstätte Carl Auböck
Located in Sagaponack, NY
An elegant heavy solid brass 'hand' paperweight.
Brass
Brush by Carl Aubock
By Werkstätte Carl Auböck
Located in Sagaponack, NY
An elegant brush hand carved from cow horn with naturally occurring variations in color and pattern.
Horn
Brush by Carl Aubock
By Werkstätte Carl Auböck
Located in Sagaponack, NY
An elegant brush hand carved from cow horn with naturally occurring variations in color and pattern.
Horn
Brush by Carl Aubock
By Werkstätte Carl Auböck
Located in Sagaponack, NY
An elegant brush hand carved from cow Horn with naturally occurring variations in color and pattern.
Horn
Price Upon Request
Carl Auböck Table Clock in red leather, Austria 1950s
By Werkstätte Carl Auböck
Located in Berlin, DE
A beautiful leather and stainless steel modernist clock from the 1950s, designed and executed by Carl Auböck in very rare and hard to find red leather, Vienna/Austria. An amazing str...
Stainless Steel