Carl Auböck Leather Covered Brass Letter Holder
View Similar Items
Carl Auböck Leather Covered Brass Letter Holder
About the Item
- Creator:Werkstätte Carl Auböck (Designer)
- Dimensions:Height: 5.12 in (13 cm)Width: 9.06 in (23 cm)Depth: 2.96 in (7.5 cm)
- Style:Modern (Of the Period)
- Materials and Techniques:
- Place of Origin:
- Period:
- Date of Manufacture:1950s
- Condition:Wear consistent with age and use.
- Seller Location:London, GB
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU89102761192
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 Auböck III, 1960s, Alphabetical 'L' Shaped Walnut Clothes BrushBy Werkstätte Carl AuböckLocated in London, GBL-shaped coat brush designed and made by Carl Auböck III, Vienna, circa 1960. The model 5000 alphabetical clothes brushes were designed in 1961 and a ...Category
Mid-20th Century Austrian Mid-Century Modern Decorative Objects
MaterialsWalnut
- Carl Auböck Brush Pen HolderBy Werkstätte Carl AuböckLocated in London, GBA wonderful little pen holder by Carl Auböck. Handmade in Vienna in the 1950s. A beautiful delicate sculptural piece.Category
Vintage 1950s Austrian Modern More Furniture and Collectibles
MaterialsWalnut
- Carl Auböck Cognac Leather PitcherBy Werkstätte Carl AuböckLocated in London, GBGreat glass pitcher with a natural cognac leather handle and cover.Category
Vintage 1960s Austrian Modern Crystal Serveware
MaterialsLeather
- Carl Auböck Black Leather Cork StopperBy Werkstätte Carl AuböckLocated in London, GBGreat leather bottle stopper with the original leather string.Category
Vintage 1950s Austrian Modern Barware
MaterialsLeather
- Carl Auböck Brass Key Corkscrew with ElephantBy Werkstätte Carl AuböckLocated in London, GBA cast brass corkscrew featuring an Elephant designed and made by Carl Auböck II in Vienna, Austria, in the 1950s. This item was made as an exclusive corporate gift and so is a rare ...Category
Vintage 1950s Austrian Modern Barware
MaterialsBrass
- Carl Auböck 'Carolus VI' Brass Bottle OpenerBy Werkstätte Carl AuböckLocated in London, GBCast brass bottle opener by the Auböck Werkstätte, Vienna, circa 1960. The piece is shaped as a coin to which the actual bottle opener is attached...Category
Vintage 1950s Danish Modern Ashtrays
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 Aubock Polished Brass Letter Opener #4233By Werkstätte Carl AuböckLocated in Chalk Hill, PACarl Aubock polished brass letter opener #4233. Produced by Carl Auböck IV in the original Auböck workshop in Vienna, Austria using the same standards, high-quality materials, origin...Category
21st Century and Contemporary Austrian Mid-Century Modern Letter Openers
MaterialsBrass
- Carl Aubock Brass "Hand" Letter Opener #7208By Werkstätte Carl AuböckLocated in Chalk Hill, PACarl Aubock Brass "Hand" Letter Opener #7208. Currently produced by Carl Auböck IV in the original Auböck workshop in Vienna, Austria using the same standards, high-quality materials...Category
21st Century and Contemporary Austrian Mid-Century Modern Letter Openers
MaterialsBrass
- Carl Auböck Letter Opener in Leather and Brass, Austria 1960sBy Werkstätte Carl AuböckLocated in Berlin, DECarl Auböck leather and brass letter opener, Austria 1960s.Category
Vintage 1960s Austrian Mid-Century Modern More Desk Accessories
MaterialsBrass
- Carl Auböck #4233-2 Letter OpenerBy Werkstätte Carl AuböckLocated in Berlin, DECarl Auböck #4233-2 Letter Opener, Austria 2022.Category
2010s Austrian Mid-Century Modern Letter Openers
MaterialsBrass
$601 / item - Brass and Cane Letter Opener by Carl AubockBy Werkstätte Carl AuböckLocated in Sag Harbor, NYFor 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...Category
2010s Austrian Letter Openers
MaterialsBrass
$560 / item