Marianne Brandt

comprising a teapot with infuser, milk jug and sugar bowl

Collection Karl Gröppel, Bochum, Germany, circa 1920s, likely acquired direcly from The Bauhaus
Thence by descent to the present owner

Marianne Brandt (design) and Lucia Moholy (photo), Coffee and Tea Set, 1924, Bauhaus Archive, Museum of Design, Berlin, ref. 3269/I-VI (for a service with the same model of teapot and milk jug as the present lot)
Herbert Bayer, Das Bauhaus in Dessau, Katalog der Muster, Dessau, 1925, n. ME 24
Làszlo Moholy-Nagy, "Das Bauhaus in Dessau," Qualität, May-June 1925, p. 86 (for a service with the same model of teapot and milk jug as the present lot)
Die Schaulade, Bamberg, July 1926, p. 217                                             
Drexler and Daniel, Introduction to Twentieth Century Design from the Collection of the Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1959, pl. 37 
Walter Gropius, "Neue Arbeiten der Bauhauswerkstätten, Bauhausbücher 7," Munich, 1981, pp. 48, 49 and 53
H. M. Wingler, Bauhaus Archiv Museum, Berlin, 1981, p. 107, no. 194 (for the model of the teapot and milk jug in the collection of the Bauhaus Archiv Museum, Berlin)
Judy Rudoe, Decorative Arts 1850-1950, A Catalogue of the British Museum Collection, London, 1991, p. 22 (for a discussion of the different models)
Klaus Weber, Die Metallwerkstatt am Bauhaus, exh. cat., Bauhaus-Archiv Museum für Gestaltung, Berlin, 1992, pp. 142-143, figs. 40-43
New Worlds, German and Austrian Art 1890-1940, exh. cat., Neue Galerie, New York, 2001, p. 535 (for a similar example of the milk jug)
Ulrike Müller, Bauhaus Women:  Art, Handicraft, Design, Paris, 2009, p. 122 (for the model of the teapot in the collection of the Klassik Stiftung Weimar)

Overall in good condition. When viewed first hand, the silver surfaces present with a delicate hand hammered texture that reveals the object as handmade. The silver surfaces presents with minor surface scratches, a few minor areas of discoloration and a few minute abrasions consistent with age and gentle use. The teapot with a silver tea infuser that perfectly fits in the teapot and is in very good condition. The interior of the tea pot with some traces of wear consistent with use. The ebony of the teapot is in very good original condition with minor surface scratches consistent with age and gentle use. The proper right side of the teapot with a minor indentation on the body just below the upper edge, along approximately ½ in. and only visible upon close inspection. The milk jug with a few minor discolorations following the nuanced texture of the piece. The ebony handle of the milk jug has been replaced in a manner that is consistent with the original and the ebony on the tea pot. An outstanding and exceedingly rare example of this 20th century design icon. -----
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Marianne Brandt’s enrollment in 1924 at the Metallwerkstatt of the Bauhaus would show a major turning point of her work as a designer, largely in her total rejection of the academicism in the fine arts of her early training, initially at the Fürstliche freie Zeichenschule and later at the Hochschule für Bildende Kunst in Weimar. Among the courses she took as a student were the highly influential instruction on metalsmithing under professor László Moholy-Nagy. After Moholy-Nagy’s departure from the school in 1928, Brandt was temporarily the director of the Metalwerkstatt, an extremely noteworthy accomplishment for a woman in any role of industrial design of the day, especially within the confines of the Bauhaus, which largely relegated female students to the departments focused on weaving and ceramics. The 900 silver mark of the present example most likely indicates its fabrication in the late Weimar period of 1924, just prior to the school’s move to Dessau where it embraced a renewed interest in the melding of art and technology through design.

A version of this renowned tea service was commissioned by the parents of Marli Ehrmann, a fellow Bauhaus student in weaving and textiles. Brandt’s use of the expensive materials silver and ebony in this tea service drew criticism in the period for its tensions related to the Bauhaus’ overarching philosophy that sought to marry new industrial technologies with mass-produced design of high quality for a universal population of consumers. This idea was famously termed “Art and Technology: A New Unity” by director Walter Gropius in 1919 at the opening of the school in Weimar. These ambitions fell short in the long term of the school’s run; even designs that took on a machine aesthetic, most often still required artisanal assembly and execution that were not ultimately amenable to production on a massive scale.

For this reason, the Brandt service has become a symbol of the conceptual artistic abilities of the Bauhaus and, on a broader scale, an impressive signifier for European Modernism—a complex design that encapsulated a whole generation’s ethics of design in the stark geometric forms and smooth materials—the graceful implication of simplicity through the machine aesthetic and the ambitious industrial production ideals that were ultimately undermined by luxurious materials.    

The present owner inherited this tea service by Marianne Brandt from his grand­father Karl Gröppel (1883­-1962), a German fabricant, art collector and patron of German Expressionism as well as contemporary German design, especially Bauhaus works. As a part of his family's industrial engineering firm Westfalia Dinnendahl Gröppel AG, Gröppel staunchly supported new efforts toward modern industrial design, notably illustrated by the present offering. Together with his wife Irene, they amassed an important art collection of over 200 paintings and sculpture that today comprise a major part of the collection at the Museum Ostwall in Dortmund.