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 Auböck #4019-1 or 4019-2 Newspaper Tray, Austria
By Werkstätte Carl Auböck
Located in Berlin, DE
Carl Auböck #4019-1 or 4019-2 newspaper tray in leather and brass, Austria. Available in black or brown leather.
Brass
Mid-Century Modern Newspaper Tray by Werkstätte Carl Auböck, Austria
By Werkstätte Carl Auböck
Located in Berlin, DE
Carl Auböck #4488 newspaper tray in leather and brass, Austria. New. Available in brown or black leather.
Brass
Carl Auböck Newspaper or Magazine Tray in Black or Brown Leather and Brass
By Werkstätte Carl Auböck
Located in Berlin, DE
Classic Carl Auböck newspaper tray in polished brass and leather in either black or brown.
Brass
Brass and Leather Newspaper Rack by Werkstätte Carl Auböck, Austria 1960s
By Werkstätte Carl Auböck
Located in Berlin, DE
Magazine rack by Werkstätte Carl Auböck, made of bent brass rods with suspended hand-stitched leather sling. The warm brown leather pocket is held within a sculptural brass frame wi...
Brass
Mathieu Matégot Magazine Rack or Stand or Tray in Black and Brass France, 1950s
Located in Berlin, DE
Excellent Mathieu Matégot magazine tray in excellent condition.
Brass
Mathieu Matégot Mid-Century Modern Folded Magazine Stand, 1950s
By Mathieu Matégot
Located in Berlin, DE
Really nice Mathieu Matégot beige Folded Magazine Stand in vintage condition.
Metal
In his workshop in Vienna, the fourth-generation artisan crafts the most covetable creations.
His two gallery spaces in the German capital bring together thousands of pieces ranging from mid-century classics and Murano glass to covetable reproductions manufactured in-house.
