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 Mid-Century Coat Rack Beech Wardrobe with 7 Brass Hooks, 1950s
By Werkstätte Carl Auböck
Located in Vienna, AT
An elegant modernist wall-mounted coat rack from the 1950s. An original and old vintage object, designed and executed by the Austrian architect and designer Carl Auböck. The frame is...
Brass
Rare Carl Auböck Coat Rack With Hat Rack, Wardrobe, Brass, Walnut & Beech, 1950s
By Werkstätte Carl Auböck
Located in Vienna, AT
An elegant modernist wall-mounted coat rack from the 1950s. An original and old vintage object, designed and executed by the Austrian architect and designer Carl Auböck. This is a un...
Brass
Carl Aubock Wall Coat Rack with 5 Brass Hooks, Walnut, Iron, Austria, 1950s
By Werkstätte Carl Auböck
Located in Vienna, AT
A Minimalist Mid Century modern wall-mounted coat rack, equipped with five „5“-shaped polished solid brass wall hooks. This is an early model from the early 1950s, designed and execu...
Iron
Carl Aubock Two Large Brass Double Wall Coat Hooks #4056, Austria, 1950s
By Werkstätte Carl Auböck
Located in Vienna, AT
Up to two large charming Minimalist wall coat hooks, model #4056, designed and executed in the 1950s by Carl Aubock workshop, Vienna/Austria. These are authentic, vintage wall hooks,...
Brass
Up to 12 Austrian Modernist Solid Gold-Plated Coat Hangers from the 1970s
By Werkstätte Carl Auböck
Located in Vienna, AT
Up to 12 beautiful and heavy gold-plated hangers made in Austria in the 1970s. These very solid and stylish pieces are in very good condition, each measu...
Metal, Steel, Gold Plate
1900s Thonet Vienna Art Nouveau Secessionist Bentwood Wall Coat Rack, Austria
By Thonet, Gebrüder Thonet Vienna GmbH, August Thonet
Located in Vienna, AT
A beautiful, original, and authentic Art Nouveau (Jugendstil / Secession) wall-mounted coat and hat rack, dating from around 1900 and produced by Gebrüder Thonet, Vienna, Austria. Th...
Bentwood, Wood
Carl Auböck Coatrack Wardrobe, Beechwood Patinated Brass Bronze Hooks, 1950s
By Werkstätte Carl Auböck
Located in Hausmannstätten, AT
A coat rack by Carl Auböck, Vienna, Austria, manufactured in midcentury, circa 1950. It is made of a beechwood frame in an aged and very warm tone. There are six patinated brass hooks (similar to bronze) which can be positioned randomly on the rows. This wardrobe is in very good original condition with only little wear. About Carl Auböck II 25 August 1900, Vienna (Austria)-17 July 1957, Vienna (Austria) Carl Auböck was an Austrian painter and designer of the Classic modern movement. His best-known designs include the Baumtisch (eng. "tree table") and the Umkehrlampe (eng. "reversible lamp"). Auböck began his apprenticeship as a bronze worker and chaser in his father's workshop. From 1917-1919, he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. After this, he followed his teacher Johannes Itten to the Bauhaus in Weitmar and became friends with the director, Walter Gropius. Little over a year later, he left in order to take over his father’s workshop in Vienna and raise a family. Here, through his circle of friends and acquaintances, he became convinced of the ideas of Adolf Loos and developed into an opponent of the Viennese workshops. Alongside his Viennese bronze and Art Deco design work for the domestic and American markets, he began to produce paintings and drawings. The styles he developed in the early 1940s for everyday objects achieved cult status after the Second World War. In May 1945, he served a six-month prison sentence in the Vienna District Court I due to his membership in the NSDAP. At the end of the 1940s, he worked with his son Carl in the workshop. In 1954, he was awarded a total of four gold medals at the Triennale in Milan. In 2010, Auböck’s works were placed under protection by the Austrian Federal Monuments Office (BDA). Hundreds of original designs were produced during his long creative career but his Baumtisch and Umkehrlampe are outstanding examples. Carl Auböck / Carl Aubock...
Brass
Carl Auböck Wardrobe Coat Rack Beechwood Patinated Brass Bronze Hooks, 1950s
By Werkstätte Carl Auböck
Located in Hausmannstätten, AT
A wardrobe by Carl Auböck, Vienna, Austria, manufactured in midcentury, circa 1950. It is made of a beech wood frame in an aged and very warm tone. There are six patinated brass hook...
Brass
Carl Auböck Midcentury Oak Wall Coat Rack with Eight Brass Hooks, 1950s, Austria
By Werkstätte Carl Auböck
Located in Biebergemund, Hessen
Austrian Mid-Century Modern coatrack #4547 made of solid waxed oak wood with eight polished solid brass hooks designed by Carl Auböck and handmade by Werkstätten Auböck. Lit.: Carl A...
Brass
Mid-Century Modern Wall Beech Vintage Wardrobe with Brass Hooks by Carl Auböck
By Werkstätte Carl Auböck
Located in Vienna, AT
This presented wall-mounted wardrobe by Carl Auböck, Vienna circa 1950, was made of beechwood slats, which were lacquered black and colorless. Also the wardrobe features five pieces...
Brass
Carl Aubock Mid-Century Modern Beech Coat Rack Six Brass Hooks Vienna, 1950s
By Werkstätte Carl Auböck
Located in Vienna, AT
Mid-Century Modern vintage original Carl Auböck coat rack or wardrobe from beech with six brass hooks Vienna 1950s While the wall mounted wardrobe...
Brass
Carl Auböck Coat Rack Wardrobe, Wood Patinated Blackened Brass Hooks, 1950s
By Werkstätte Carl Auböck
Located in Hausmannstätten, AT
A coat check by Carl Auböck, Vienna, Austria, manufactured in midcentury, circa 1950. It consists of a refurbished wooden frame and six polished brass hooks with lovely patina. Five ...
Brass
