Tea Service with Samovar and Tray
Designer Josef Hoffmann Austrian
Manufacturer Wiener Werkstätte
Not on view
This polished brass service, similar in form to one Josef Hoffmann designed in 1904, represents the designer’s interest in austere forms and smooth surfaces. The stylistic trend towards unadorned forms reached its high point in the metal works of the early Wiener Werkstätte. It was out of a silver workshop in Vienna that Wiener Werkstätte originally sprang. Unlike the workshop’s ceramics and glassware, which were manufactured in other factories, silver and metal works were executed by the Wiener Werkstätte artists themselves. This particular set was produced in only twenty-nine copies. After 1910, Hoffmann’s designs would move towards more elegant and ornate forms.
