Bench from the Parlor Furnishings for Hellmann, 1904

Fritz Waerndorfer (1868–1939), the financier of the Wiener Werkstätte, commissioned the workshop’s co-founder Koloman Moser (1868–1918) to create parlor furnishings for his sister-in-law Margarete Hellmann. The unifying motif of the black-stained maplewood furniture, executed by the Wiener Werkstätte, is a recurring rectangle with an inscribed oval shaped which, in turn, comprises a rhomboid. The parlor furnishings include a sitting room suite, a writing desk, a music cabinet and two display cabinets. An oval mirror, also designed by Moser, used to hang above the wide settee. The high wooden feet of the music cabinet and writing desk are decorated with bands made from white metal, a special feature which Moser would repeat with the display cabinets he designed for the fashion salon Schwestern Flöge. Another peculiarity of the parlor furnishings for the Hellmann family is that the designer dispensed altogether with the decorative effect produced by inlaid work.

Text Leopold Museum