Josef Hoffmann - Furniture for the Apartment of Berta Zuckerkandl (small dining-room table, 12 chairs, sideboard)

Date	1914/16
Period	20th century
Origin	Vienna
Medium	Walnut veneer, Bent beech, Plywood, solid elm and veneer, ebonized
Dimensions	92 x 47 x 42 cm (36¹/₄ x 18¹/₂ x 16¹/₂ inches)
Gallery	Bel Etage, Wolfgang Bauer, Vienna

Description
Technical

JOSEF HOFFMANN
J. & J. KOHN/JOSEF SOULEK/WIENER WERKSTÄTTE

FURNITURE FOR THE APARTMENT OF BERTA ZUCKERKANDL
(small dining-room table, 12 chairs, sideboard)

DINING-ROOM TABLE:H 77 cm, W 149 cm (resp. 249 cm), D 98 cm
CHAIRS: H 92 cm, SH 48.5 cm, W 47 cm, D 42 cm

designed by: Josef Hoffmann, Vienna, 1914/16
executed by: J. & J. Kohn, model no. T 826 (chairs), from 1914 on; table and sideboard: most probably Josef Soulek for the Wiener Werkstätte, 1916

Josef Hoffmann designed the furniture for the drawing-room and dining-room of Berta Zuckerkandl's apartment, situated on the corner of the Vienna Ringstraße and Oppolzergasse. In its dining-room, walls, ceilings, curtains and the lampshade fabric were decorated with a leaf pattern designed by Arthur Berger, thus making a symbolic reference to a pergola. Material of the same pattern also decorated the salesroom of the fashion department of the Wiener Werkstätte on Kärntner Straße, furnished with identical chairs – previously designed by Hoffmann – to those in the dining-room of the Zuckerkandl apartment.

Date: 1914/16
Period: 20th century
Origin: Vienna
Medium: Walnut veneer, Bent beech, Plywood, solid elm and veneer, ebonized
Dimensions: 92 x 47 x 42 cm (36¹/₄ x 18¹/₂ x 16¹/₂ inches)
Provenance: furniture and original documentation of the apartment from the estate of Berta Zuckerkandl

Berta Zuckerkandl (1864–1945) held one of the most important salons in Austria and was, in addition, a writer, journalist and art critic. From the end of the 19th century until her emigration to Paris in 1938 she tried to keep her literary salon alive, which initially was held in the Viennese district of Döbling and after 1917 in her apartment above Café Landtmann in Vienna's city centre. Our furniture from this apartment witnessed encounters between the most important Austrian artists such as Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Gustav Klimt, Max Reinhardt and Arthur Schnitzler. Berta Zuckerkandl was an amateur of the Wiener Werkstätte and also its chronicler.
Literature: J. & J. Kohn sales cat., 1916, p. 18; E. F. Sekler, Josef Hoffmann, Das architektonische Werk, Salzburg, 1982, p. 376; A. Völker, Die Stoffe der Wiener Werkstätte, Vienna, 1990, p. 96 f; G. Renzi, Il mobile moderno, Gebrüder Thonet Vienna, Jacob & Josef Kohn, Milan, 2008, p. 259
Categories: Decorative Arts & Design, Furniture