- Museum number
- 1982,1203.7
- Description
-
Biscuit tin; base metal, printed with stylised floral design in black, white, pink, yellow and grey with gold panels, with hinged lid.
- Production date
- 1914-1915 (designed)
- Dimensions
-
Height: 4.20 centimetres
-
Length: 17.80 centimetres
-
Width: 8.40 centimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- Text from J. Rudoe, 'Decorative Arts 1850-1950. A catalogue of the British Museum collection'. 2nd ed. no.156.
Made by Bahlsens after a design by E.J. Margold. Margold was trained initially as a cabinet-maker before studying under Hoffmann in the Vienna Kunstgewerbeschule. In 1908-9 he was assistant to Hoffmann in the master-class for architecture and a member of the Wiener Werkstatte. In 1911 he was invited to join the Darmstadt artists' colony and moved to Berlin in 1929.
As early as the 1890s Bahlsen's biscuit factory had begun to employ a range of artists for the design of packaging and publicity material; this was exceptional as it preceded by several years the founding in 1907 of the Deutsche Werkbund, which encouraged such policies. By 1913 fifteen artists had supplied designs for the firm, among them Behrens, Carl Otto Czeschka, Julius Diez, the sculptors Ludwig Vierthaler and Georg Herting, and the Hanover architect K. Siebrecht, who designed Bahlsen's new factory buildings in 1911-13. E. J. Margold worked for Bahlsen from 1914 to 1916 or 1917.
Bahlsen's new designs for ornamental giftware packaging were shown at the exhibition held by the Deutsche Werkbund in Cologne in 1914. They included ceramic boxes by Vierthaler and Margold as well as biscuit tins by Heinrich Mittag and Aenne Koken. The Margold biscuit tins were not shown in the exhibition. For a group of four biscuit tins with designs closely similar to this one, see Deutsche Kunst & Dekoration, Darmstadt 34, 1914, 316. This example was advertised in the Werkbund Jahrbuch, Jena, of 1915. The archive of the Bahlsen Museum holds several designs by Margold and his wife Ella, many of them dated to the years 1914 and 1915, but the design for this particular biscuit tin is not among them. (I am grateful to Beate Grubert for checking the Bahlsen archive.)
For full discussion of Bahlsen's display at the 1914 Werkbund exhibition, see R. Joppien, 'Die Hannoversche Keksfabrik Hermann Bahlsen auf der Werkbund-Austellung', Der Westdeutsche Impuls 1900-1914. Kunst und Umweltgestalung im Industriegeblet: Die Deutsche Werkbund-Austelung Coln, exhibition catalogue, Kolnische Kunstverein, 216-26, 1984. For an identical tin in the BadischesLandesmuseum, Karlsruhe, see I. Franzke, 'Jugendstil', Badisches Landesmuseum, Karlesruhe, Bestandskatalog 1987, no. 226. For further tins with similar designs in the possession of Bahlsen's Keksfabrik, see Darmstadt 1976, Kunsthalle, 'Ein Dokument Deutscher Kunst 1901-1976', 5 vols. Bd 4, no. 396 and J. Hauschild, 'Ferne Welte - Hohe Klassen: Verpackung des Jugendstils', Weltkunst, 57Jg. no.15, 1 August 1987, 2038-41. For examples in the Museum der Kiinstlerkolonie, Darmstadt, see R. Ulmer, 'Museum der Künstlerkolonie, Darmstadt, Katalog', Darmstadt n.d.(1990), nos 218-21. For a ceramic biscuit box executed by the Vereinigte Wiener und Gmundner Keramik und Tonwarenfabrik Schleiss, see C.B.Heller, 'Kataloge des Hessischen Landesmuseums Nr.12. Jugendstil, Kunst um1900', Darmstadt 1982, no. 275.
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1982
- Department
- Britain, Europe and Prehistory
- Registration number
- 1982,1203.7