No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VA… Read more

It was not so many years ago that a chair by Henry van de Velde was available at just 500 DM (Lot 139) and an elegant vitrine for the small sum of 2,000 DM (Lot 136). Those were the sixties and seventies when the majority of the objects in the present collection were acquired. The collector was fortunate enough to have been offered a group of furniture from a singular van de Velde interior thus being able to give his collection much more character than he could have done by assembling odd pieces. This interior was formerly that of Gallery Arnold in Dresden for which Henry van de Velde had redecorated and furnished several rooms in a Baroque house in 1906. Apart from the chair and the vitrine, (illustrated in the contemporary photograph reproduced above), the four side chairs, the arm-chair, the writing desk with matching chair, the triangular table and the pedestal also originate from the same rooms. The owner of Gallery Arnold, the art-dealer Ludwig Gutbier, was one of the most active art agents at the begining of the 20th Century, almost comparable to the well known brothers Cassierer in Berlin (for whom van de Velde had also designed an exhibition space). It was as early as 1905 that Gallery Arnold showed paintings by Matisse in their rooms, shortly followed by an exhibition of works by the 'Brücke' artists. Despite the total destruction of the gallery building during the war most of its furniture survived as it had already been moved to the south of Germany in the late thirties. Van de Velde was forty three years old when he created the furniture for Gallery Arnold; he had clearly overcome the 'dämonischen Ornamente' (van de Velde) of his youth and with this the influence of 'Art Nouveau'. This development was accelerated by two incidents: firstly by the exhibition 'Ein Dokument deutscher Kunst' 1901 in Darmstadt, from which van de Velde left disgusted, with the resolution: "I will become even simpler, from now on I will only be searching for form". Secondly a little later in 1903 when visiting Greece the artist was first acquainted with classical architecture, and whilst this inspired other contemporary designers and architects (like Peter Behrens) to work in the Neo-Classical style it confirmed and strengthened Henry van de Velde's search for simple and clear forms. This collection contains some fine examples of van de Velde's work which is amazingly modern for the early 20th Century and the objects offered here document fifteen of the most important years of Henry van de Velde's oeuvre with some of the pieces being the best the artist ever created. Wolf D. Pecher

A Six Piece Set of Cutlery

THE DESIGN ATTRIBUTED TO HENRY VAN DE VELDE, CIRCA 1905, MANUFACTURED BY KOCH & BERGFELD, BREMEN

Details

A Six Piece Set of Cutlery
The design attributed to Henry van de Velde, circa 1905, manufactured by Koch & Bergfeld, Bremen
Comprising:
2 Forks
2 Knives
2 Spoons
9½in. (24cm.) length of knife
Stamped 800, German poinçon (6)

Special notice

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 17.5% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.

Sale room notice

Please note that the estimate on this lot should read £4,000-6,000.

Lot Essay

Cf: Exhibition Catalogue, Museum Berlin-Ost, Berlin, 1972, Cat. No. 942, pl. 201
Exhibition Catalogue, Brussels, 1977, Cat. Nos. 220 and 229 (illustrated)
Schümann, Koch & Bergfeld, Entwürfe, Cat. No. 27100

More from IMPORTANT 20TH CENTURY DECORATIVE ARTS

View All