In Vienna’s Neubau district, a beautiful Biedermeier townhouse has been home to the Werkstätte Carl Auböck for more than 100 years. Inside the workshop, where production continues to this day, countless objects line the shelves, walls, tabletops and desktops.
The Viennese artist and designer Carl Auböck II was one of the quirkiest and most delightful and collectible of modern designers. A rather odd duck in the world of decorative arts, he was a peculiar talent whose specialties included smaller desk accessories and tabletop pieces such as corkscrews, paperweights, letter openers, bookends and bottle stoppers. He rendered these pieces in a combination of metal — most often brass — and such elemental materials as leather, knobby wood and animal horn, creating forms that could be almost Surrealist, from hands and feet to keys, birds and amoebae.
As a boy, Auböck was precocious and artistic. He studied drawing and at the same time trained in the workshop of his father, Karl Heinrich Auböck, a popular maker of traditional bronze figurines and collectibles. In 1919, Carl II went to Germany to study at the Bauhaus, where he was a pupil of the progressive artist and theorist Johannes Itten. While the Bauhaus is most associated with the rigidly ordered, functionalist architecture of its directors Walter Gropius and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, the school was in reality a liberal, spirited place — a crucible for imaginative, playful and avant-garde art and design. It was this spirit that imbued Carl II’s work from the time he left in 1921.
In 1922 or ’23, Carl Auböck II returned to Vienna to help care for his ailing father, and he took over the business. He created the Werkstätte Carl Auböck and a legacy that earned his objects cult status among collectors. The business was passed on to his descendants, who run the atelier that is still in operation today. Today, objects designed by Carl II make up 90 percent of Werkstätte Carl Auböck’s production, joined by the creations of architect and designer Carl IV, his grandson.
Vintage Auböck designs have a special character, a patina that only emphasizes how much the pieces have been loved and used. Carl Aubock II’s small furniture items — leather- or caned-sling magazine racks; free-edge wooden side tables with tubular bronze legs; wicker serving trolleys with turned beechwood wheels — are elegant and purposeful. His bijoux desktop objects, library tools, ashtrays and barware pieces evince a kind of mirthful practicality. They seem to ask: “If you need a corkscrew, or a paperweight, or a candlestick, why not make it fun as well as functional?” And indeed, why not?
Find a collection of vintage Werkstätte Carl Auböck mirrors, seating, tables, decorative objects and other furniture on 1stDibs.
Carl Aubock "My Son" Patinated Brass Sculpture #4752
By Werkstätte Carl Auböck
Located in Chalk Hill, PA
Carl Aubock "My Son" Patinated Brass Sculpture #4752 designed in the 1950s. Currently produced by Carl Auböck IV in the original Auböck workshop in Vienna, Austria using the same sta...
Brass
Carl Aubock Patinated Brass "Leaning on Tree Stump Figural Sculpture #4068
By Werkstätte Carl Auböck
Located in Chalk Hill, PA
Carl Aubock Patinated Brass "Leaning on Tree Stump Figural Sculpture #4068 designed in the 1950's. Produced by Carl Auböck IV in the original Auböck workshop in Vienna, Austria using...
Brass
Carl Aubock Patinated Brass "Optimist" Sculpture #4049
By Werkstätte Carl Auböck
Located in Chalk Hill, PA
Carl Aubock Patinated Brass "Optimist" Sculpture #4049. Produced by Carl Auböck IV in the original Auböck workshop in Vienna, Austria using the same standards, high-quality materials...
Brass
Carl Aubock Patinated Brass Architect Sculpture #4061
By Werkstätte Carl Auböck
Located in Chalk Hill, PA
Carl Aubock patinated brass "Architect" sculpture #4061. Produced by Carl Auböck IV in the original Auböck workshop in Vienna, Austria using the same standards, high-quality material...
Brass
Carl Auböck Model #4366 'Bird' Brass Sculpture
By Werkstätte Carl Auböck
Located in Chalk Hill, PA
Carl Auböck Model #4366 'Bird' brass sculpture. A wonderful abstract patinated brass bird sculpture designed in the 1950's by Vienna, Austria's, Carl Aubock. This item is produced in the original Carl Aubock Werkstatte currently operated by Carl Aubock IV. All items are produced with the highest quality materials, using traditional tooling and techniques. Over many years, Carl Aubock Wekstatte has amassed a large catalog of items, many of which are for daily use in the household or office. Aubock items make for the perfect high quality, collectable gift for the home...
Brass
Carl Aubock Patinated Brass "Aorta" Vase #3794 S
By Werkstätte Carl Auböck
Located in Chalk Hill, PA
Carl Aubock patinated brass "Aorta" Mid-Century Modern vase #3794 S. Produced by Carl Auböck IV in the original Auböck workshop in Vienna, Austria using the same standards, high-qual...
Brass
Standing Sculpture by Werkstätte Carl Auböck, Patinated Brass, Austria
By Werkstätte Carl Auböck
Located in Berlin, DE
Carl Auböck #4069 Sculpture "Standing", Austria.
Brass
Modernist Bronze Figural Sculpture 22.25" x 12.5" Mid Century Modern Art
Located in Atlanta, GA
Modernist bronze figural sculpture, possibly Austrian, circa 1960s. Unsigned. With a Galerie Peithner-Lichtenfels & Čubrda label on the underside.
Bronze
Bronze Female Figure by Anne Van Kleeck, circa 1960s
Located in St.Petersburg, FL
An unusual cast bronze sculpture by Anne Van Kleeck. Elongated figure-exaggerated and inspired by Giacometti. From the artist's estate. A note about the artist: Anne Van Kleeck was primarily known for her works in cast bronze and ceramics. She attended Ohio Wesleyan University (B.A.) and Ohio State University (M.A.) and spent several years as a professor of art in Ohio and Florida. In 1957, Anne traveled to Venice, Italy to study bronze and lost wax casting, beaten iron and mosaic techniques. During that stay she employed an Italian foundry expert and together they established a small foundry on the island of Murano where they cast bronzes for her one woman show in Venice. Van Kleecks work has won multiple awards and is owned worldwide by private collectors and museums, including the Metropolitan Museum and MOMA in New York. She was contemporaries of and exhibited with Ruth Asawa, Gary Knox Bennett...
Aluminum
The Pedestrian Bronze Sculpture by Newel in Ebonized Finish
Located in Queens, NY
Contemporary hand-forged bronze Brutalist-inspired figural sculpture depicting a female walking figure finished in an ebonized patina (PRICED EACH). (\"THE PEDESTRIAN\" - Limited Edi...
Bronze
1970 Amelio Roccamonte Italian Art Modern Silver Bronze Metal Sculpture
By Giorgio Amelio Roccamonte
Located in Brescia, IT
Amelio Roccamonte (Buenos Aires 1927 – Roma 1980) Italy, 1970 Silver Bronze Sculpture Ed 149/300
Silver
Sébastien Tamari, Femme Nu, French Modernist Patinated Bronze Sculpture, 1960s
By Sebastien Tamari
Located in New York, NY
Sébastien Tamari (French, 1900-1991) 1900 Birth in Baku of Sébastien Tamari (Russian Empire). 1920 He left his hometown due to political events. He travelled through the Caucas...
Bronze
