Cup, Tondi 10-Part Coffee and Tea Service, 1901/02

Together with her teacher Koloman Moser (1868–1918), Jutta Sika (1877–1964) designed various decors and articles of daily use for the Viennese porcelain manufactory Josef Böck, including this 1901/02 Tondi Coffee and Tea Service. Moser was responsible for the form, Sika for the decor. With its avant-garde design, the service occupies a special place. The parts of the service that are in the Leopold Collection are, in addition to the cups and saucers, a coffeepot, a teapot, a milk jug and a sugar bowl.
The service was certainly intended as part of an entire series of similar objects created in keeping with the idea of a Gesamtkunstwerk, or universal work of art. Sika also furnished designs for the company Argentor, and from 1905 worked as a designer for the fashion salon Schwestern Flöge. She designed seven postcards for the Wiener Werkstätte and featured with her designs in the 1908 and 1909 Kunstschau. Sika further created stage costumes for the dancer Grete Wiesenthal (1885–1970) in which the latter was often photographed by the Austrian photographer Dora Kallmus, known as Madame d’Ora (1881–1963).

EF, 2021