Carl Auböck Big Pencil Telephone Ball Pen in Brass with Box, Austria, 1950s
View Similar Items
Carl Auböck Big Pencil Telephone Ball Pen in Brass with Box, Austria, 1950s
About the Item
- Creator:Werkstätte Carl Auböck (Designer, Manufacturer)
- Dimensions:Height: 6.5 in (16.51 cm)Width: 0.5 in (1.27 cm)Depth: 0.5 in (1.27 cm)
- Sold As:Set of 2
- Style:Mid-Century Modern (Of the Period)
- Materials and Techniques:
- Place of Origin:
- Period:
- Date of Manufacture:1950s
- Condition:Wear consistent with age and use.
- Seller Location:Vienna, AT
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU101522107222
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.
- Carl Aubock Mid-Century Horn Desk Pen & Pencil Holder Cup, Austria, 1950sBy Werkstätte Carl AuböckLocated in Vienna, ATA decorative handmade desk pen and pencil cup holder from the 1950s. Designed and manufactured by Werkstätte Carl Aubock, workshop in Vienna / Austri...Category
Mid-20th Century Austrian Mid-Century Modern Desk Sets
MaterialsHorn
- Carl Aubock Mid-Century Horn Desk Pen & Pencil Holder Cup, Austria, 1950sBy Werkstätte Carl AuböckLocated in Vienna, ATA decorative handmade desk pen and pencil cup holder from the 1950s. Designed and manufactured by Werkstätte Carl Aubock, workshop in Vienna / Austri...Category
Mid-20th Century Austrian Mid-Century Modern Desk Sets
MaterialsHorn
- Carl Aubock Mid-Century Horn Desk Pen & Pencil Holder Cup, Austria, 1950sBy Werkstätte Carl AuböckLocated in Vienna, ATA decorative handmade desk pen and pencil cup holder from the 1950s. Designed and manufactured by Werkstätte Carl Aubock, workshop in Vienna / Austri...Category
Mid-20th Century Austrian Mid-Century Modern Desk Sets
MaterialsHorn
- Carl Aubock Mid-Century Horn Desk Pen & Pencil Holder Cup, Austria, 1950sBy Werkstätte Carl AuböckLocated in Vienna, ATA decorative handmade desk pen and pencil cup holder from the 1950s. Designed and manufactured by Werkstätte Carl Aubock, workshop in Vienna / Austri...Category
Mid-20th Century Austrian Mid-Century Modern Desk Sets
MaterialsHorn
- Two Carl Aubock Mid-Century Horn Desk Pen & Pencil Holder Cups, Austria, 1950sBy Werkstätte Carl AuböckLocated in Vienna, ATA decorative pair of two handmade desk pen and pencil cup holders from the 1950s. Designed and manufactured by Werkstätte Carl Aubock, workshop in V...Category
Mid-20th Century Austrian Mid-Century Modern Desk Sets
MaterialsHorn
- Two Carl Aubock Mid-Century Horn Desk Pen & Pencil Holder Cups, Austria, 1950sBy Werkstätte Carl AuböckLocated in Vienna, ATUp to two decorative handmade desk pen and pencil holders from the 1950s. Large models, designed and manufactured by Werkstätte Carl Aubock, wo...Category
Mid-20th Century Austrian Mid-Century Modern Desk Sets
MaterialsHorn
- Carl Auböck pen brass paperweight in original wooden box, Austria 1950sBy Werkstätte Carl AuböckLocated in Berlin, DEPaperweight by Carl Auböck in wooden box. The measurements given apply to the paperweight, the box measures: 18.5 / 3 / 3 cm.Category
Vintage 1950s Austrian Mid-Century Modern Paperweights
MaterialsBrass
- Carl Auböck Model #7259 'Spiral' Brass Pen HolderBy Werkstätte Carl AuböckLocated in Glendale, CACarl Auböck Model #7259 'Spiral' brass pen holder. Designed in the 1950s, this incredibly refined and sculptural pen or pencil holder is executed in ...Category
21st Century and Contemporary Austrian Mid-Century Modern Abstract Sculp...
MaterialsBrass
- 1950s Austrian Brass Paperweight by Carl AubockBy Werkstätte Carl AuböckLocated in Sagaponack, NYAn elegant heavy solid brass 'hand' paperweight.Category
Vintage 1950s Austrian Mid-Century Modern Paperweights
MaterialsBrass
- Carl Aubock, Letter Opener, Leather and Brass, Austria, 1950sBy Werkstätte Carl AuböckLocated in Stockholm, SELetter opener by Carl Auböck. Made in brass with leather handle, Austria, 1950s.Category
Mid-20th Century Austrian Mid-Century Modern Letter Openers
MaterialsBrass
- Carl Auböck Pen Holder, Austria, 1960sBy Werkstätte Carl AuböckLocated in Berlin, DECarl Auböck pen holder, Austria, 1960s.Category
Vintage 1960s Austrian Mid-Century Modern More Desk Accessories
MaterialsHorn
- Carl Auböck Model #4317 Brass BowlBy Werkstätte Carl AuböckLocated in Glendale, CACarl Auböck Model #4317 brass bowl. Designed in the 1950s, this incredibly refined and sculptural Viennese bowl is executed in polished and darkly patinated brass. Originally conceived as a fountain pen...Category
21st Century and Contemporary Austrian Mid-Century Modern Decorative Bowls
MaterialsBrass
$696 / item
