A GOLD AND ENAMEL CAGEWORK SNUFF BOX, HERMANN RATZERSDORFER, VIENNA, 1867-1872

Hermann Samuel, eldest son of Salomon Ratzersdorfer, a dealer in antiques and secondhand goods, was born on 16 May 1815 in Pressburg (Bratislava). According to Sigmund Mayer, Die Wiener Juden: Kommerz, Kultur, Politik, 1700-1900, Vienna, 1918, Hermann moved to Vienna in the early 1840s with the purpose of opening a factory, then the first of its kind there, to manufacture reproductions. This, he is said to have thought, would be easier than finding original examples as his father did. His first enterprise was registered in December 1843 for the production of Rococo Galanteriewaren. Following a successful showing at the Wiener Gewerbsprodukte-Ausstellung in 1845, he was authorised to expand into all branches of gold and silver work. At the London Great Exhibition of 1851, Ratzersdorfer was one of only four exhibitors from the Austrian Empire to show goldsmiths’ work, to the chagrin of the organisers who nevertheless awarded him the Jury medal for “a toilet glass in a massive wrought and embossed silver frame, weighing 135 ounces”. Further prizes were to follow as Ratzersdorfer changed direction from reproductions of the Rococo to those of the Renaissance for which he is best-known today. For the ill-fated Vienna International Exhibition of 1873, he created a dazzling display of enamel and mounted crystal objects. By 1881, Hermann had handed over the reins to his son Julius who seems to have continued in business for only a few years after his father’s death in 1891.

According to family history (passed on by word of mouth), in later years Ratzersdorfer became disgusted by what he perceived as corruption at the Austrian court. He moved to Antwerp where he became involved in the diamond industry and started to buy up the works he had earlier created in Vienna, denouncing and destroying them as works of the devil. He became increasingly religious with age and was devoted to the creation of a Jewish state. He is said to have disinherited his 13 children, in order to give his money to further this cause.