first half of the 20th century, construction with four fluted legs, the front with a mid-drawer flanked by an additional drawer on either side, rectangular table top, inlays with diverse veneers including rosewood and macassar. Also to be used as a freestanding desk, since the back is equally decorated with inlays. Height c. 76.5 cm, width c. 152 cm, depth c. 82 cm. (MHA)

Subject to species of protection (ASB)

Lots 53 to 98 feature selected designs from the Bauhaus movement. They include rare pieces of furniture, lamps, ceramic products, prints and specialist literature from the period in question. Most of the objects on offer come from a German Bauhaus collection and German private ownership.

The “Staatliches Bauhaus” was founded by Walter Gropius as an art school in Weimar in 1919. Although it only existed formally from 1919 to 1933, it still has great influence today. The basic idea of the Bauhaus - to unite the traditionally separate fields of visual, applied and performing arts - led to a reorientation reaching far beyond art. The philosophy of the Bauhaus re-contextualised the guiding principle of the sculptor Horatio Greenough, “form follows function” (1852), for instance linking it to the renunciation of ornament. The omission of abstract patterns was also consistently implemented in furniture designs.

Among the choicest pieces – preceding this part of the catalogue – are an early, rare Weissenhof armchair MR 20 designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe in 1927 and executed by the Bamberger Metallwerkstätten in the early 1930s (lot 5; estimate: EUR 7,000 – 10,000) and an equally early and rare Weissenhof armchair MR 20 / MR 534 g, also designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe in 1927 and executed by Thonet in the early 1930s (lot 6; estimate: EUR 6,000 – 9,000). A further highlight of the auction is an ensemble of standardised
“Frankfurt Kitchen” furniture elements, designed by Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky in 1926 and executed by Grumbach, Frankfurt (attributed), for the Frankfurt Hochbauamt (lot 4; estimate: EUR 12,000 - 20,000).

Although not working directly at the Bauhaus, Schütte-Lihotzky met Ernst May in the 1920s through her collaboration with Adolf Loos for the “Friedensstadt” settlement at the Lainzer Tiergarten in Vienna. During this period, May was head of the “Hochbauamt” (Office for Highrise Construction) of the City of Frankfurt am Main and commissioned her in the “Typification Department” to implement the introduction of the “Frankfurt Kitchen” in the new residential construction. This model is also regarded as a forerunner of the modern built-in kitchen.

The following part of the catalogue also features numerous designs by Marcel Breuer. After training as a carpenter at the Bauhaus in Weimar from 1920 onwards, he became a “young master” and head of the furniture workshop at the Bauhaus in Dessau as early as 1925. The offer is rounded off by objects based on designs by Bauhaus artists such as Marianne Brandt, Walter Gropius, Erich Dieckmann and Otto Lindig as well as contributions in the form of graphic prints and specialist literature by Herbert Bayer, Otto Hofmann, Adolf Meyer, László Moholy-Nagy, Karl Peter Röhl, Wilhelm Wagenfeld, Lyonel Feininger, Johannes Itten, Josef Albers, Oskar Schlemmer and Wassily Kandinsky.