Enter www.secessions.com in your web browser and up pops a select few works of the Weiner Werkstätte for sale—Josef Hoffmann’s Piggy-Bank for the Palais Stoclet, a circular ebonized oak table ringed in brass designed by Adolf Loos. The simplicity of the site is deceiving. But download a PDF file of the latest Secessions catalog and the mind dizzies with the complexity of the period works, culled from rare sources by dealer Yves Macaux.
The catalog is really a textbook, and comparable to the best auction-house publications. Furniture, lighting and tableware by greats like Loos, as well as lesser-known talents such as Gustave Serrurier-Bovy and Carl Otto Czeschka, represent a range of designs that were consistent with or influenced the Werkstätte spirit. Macaux carefully describes each work, its provenance and its art-historical context. Alongside archival photography whenever possible, he deploys a humble textual voice that belies his uncompromising good taste and underscores an academic commitment to accuracy. (via Elements of Living)