Copper, Brass & Wicker Teapot, Carl Auböck II, 1950s

This angular copper teapot was designed by the 2nd Carl Auböck during the 1950s, and like many of his designs, the function led elegance of this piece is strongly indicative of the time he spent at the Bauhaus undertaking courses from Johannes Itten from 1919-1921. During this period, Itten was Formeister (form master) of the Metal Workshops at the Bauhaus. He encouraged individuality in the designs of his students over the propensity of these designs to be developed for production on an industrial scale. This was contrary to the aims of Walter Gropius, Director of the Bauhaus. After Itten’s departure in 1923, Laslo Moholy-Nagy was appointed Formeister of the Metal Workshops and foregrounded abstraction and adherence to geometry as ways to navigate designing for industrial scale. As a student of Itten, Carl Auböck II’s designs in brass and copper, are indicative of this early stage of the Bauhaus, and this teapot is no exception. Whilst the design recalls an angular simplicity in the contruction of its handle, evocative of the strict geometry seen in the metalwork of Marianne Brant, who joined the Bauhaus in 1924, the overall piece retains an organic complexity that would become quintessential of the workshop.

The cane wrapped handle, in particular, represents an attention to craftspersonship that the workshop upholds to this day, and is a detail repeated across the oeuvre of the prestigious Austrian workshop. The bamboo-stemmed lid is not original to this design, and replaces a more geometric original lid. However, the lid is a vintage addition and in-keeping with the use of bamboo within the workshop.