- Museum number
- 1987,0110.1
- Description
-
Kettle and stand with spirit lamp; brass; with engraved linear ornament, a wooden knop to the lid, the handle, bound with wicker, is attached to the body with rivets which form part of the decoration, rivets are also used decoratively in the construction of the stand.
- Production date
-
1902 (designed)
-
1903-1908 (made)
- Dimensions
-
Height: 21.30 centimetres (kettle with handle raised)
-
Height: 13.40 centimetres (stand)
-
Height: 34.70 centimetres (total)
-
Width: 33.40 centimetres (kettle)
-
Width: 20.60 centimetres (stand)
- $Inscriptions
-
-
- Curator's comments
- Text from J. Rudoe, 'Decorative Arts 1850-1950. A catalogue of the British Museum collection'. 2nd ed. no.109.
After studying at the Rijksnormaalschool from 1892 to 1896 Eisenloffel joined the silversmiths Hoeker & Son, Amsterdam, designing mainly works in revivalist styles. Following eight months in St Petersburg, where he learnt enamelling and niello techniques, Eisenloffel developed his own style. In 1900 he became artistic director of the newly installed metal workshop at the Amstelhoek factory, working in his new style for the first time. The Amstelhoek factory was founded in 1897 by W.C. Hoeker (of Hoeker & Son), initially as a ceramic factory, the metalwork and furniture departments being later additions. Hoeker wished to produce modern designs in non-precious metals such as copper and brass; the production of silver at Amstelhoek was always associated with his family's firm. The factory name was derived from the telegraphic address: Amsterdam-Hoeker.
In September 1900, on the initiative of the architect H.P. Berlage and the designer Jacob P. van den Bosch, a new design gallery, het Binnenhuis, opened in Amsterdam as a retail outlet for the applied arts, with Eisenloffel among the collaborators. Eisenloffel's metalwork enjoyed wide distribution through Amstelhoek displays at het Binnenhuis, but in January 1902, he left Amstelhoek and het Binnenhuis to run his own workshop, designing copper and brass objects for machine production. In 1903 he founded a rival interior design firm, De Woning, together with W. Penaat, who had directed the furniture department at Amstelhoek.
This kettle is illustrated in Die Kunst 8, 1902-3, 49 as part of the report on the Dutch section at the Turin Exhibition (identical article printed in Dekorative Kunst vi, November 1902). It is shown on an iron floor-stand while a variant with more rounded outline and higher handle is shown on a similar tablestand to that which occurs with this example. See also Onze Kunst, 1903, 75 and 83, where the rounded version appears in Jong Holland's Huis, a small design shop in Breda.
During 1903 Eisenloffel began to use the large circular signet which appears on the kettle stand. The monogram in the centre of this signet was registered as a silver mark in January 1903 (Leeuwarden 1986, Museum het Princessehof, 'Amstelhoek 1897-1910', J.D. van
Dam and A, Hidding. 90). Thus the kettle is likely to have been made between early 1903 and January 1908, when Eisenloffel left for Munich, where he worked for the Vereinigte Werkstatten. After his return from Munich at the end of 1908 he worked to commission in Laren but continued to produce his earlier designs at De Woning's request (see Onze Kunst, 1912, 94, an interior executed by De Woning). However, these productions usually bear the number 8 or no mark at all (information supplied by J..D. v. Dam)
.Eisenloffel's metalwork was first shown in Germany at the Kunstaustellung in Dresden in 1901 and then in Diisseldorf in 1902. Henry van de Velde praised Eisenloffel's purity of line and form, writing 'At present, I know of no metalworker in the world, who has achieved such perfection of creativity' (van de Velde, H. 'Einige Künstler Holland's und die Austellung Hugo Koch's in Dusseldorf', Inmen-Dekoration, August 1902). For an illustration of this kettle and stand as part of an exhibition of the Deutsche Werkstatten in Munich, see Deutsche Kunst & Dekoration XVII, 1908, 251. The Deutsche Werkstatten comprised the Miinchener Werkstatten fur Wohnungs-Einrichtung, founded in 1902, and the Dresdener Werkstatten fur Handwerkskunst founded at Hellerau, near Dresden, in 1898. The two workshops merged in 1907 and so Eisenloffel's designs were also sold in Dresden; for this kettle, see DK&D XXII, 1908, 210. See also Deutsche Werkstatten fur Handwerkskunst Dresden und München, Preisbuch 1909, 26 and 29. The various workshops for applied art in Germany are fully discussed in Heskett,J., 'Design in Germany 1870-1918', London 1986.
Further examples of this kettle are to be found in the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam and the Amsterdams Historisch Museum, where it is described as a chocolate kettle. Eisenloffel's metalwork is represented elsewhere in Europe, in the Kunstgewerbe-museum, Zurich, which acquired three brass kettles with burners directly from De Woning in 1905 and 1906 (see Gysling-Billeter,E., 'Objekte des Jugendstils aus der Sammlung des Kunstgewerbemuseums Zurich', Bern 1975, nos 43-5), and in the Hessisches Landesmuseum, Darmstadt (Heller, C.B., 'Kataloge des Hessischen Landesmuseums Nr. 12, Jugendstil, Kunst um 1900', Darmstadt 1982, no. 93, a silver teaset). For other examples of metalwork by Eisenloffel, see Leeuwarden 1986; Leidelmeijer, F. and van der Cingel, D., 'Art Nouveau en art deco in Nederland', Amsterdam 1983, 70-74. The latter also discusses het Binnenhuis and De Woning (pp. 64-6).
The influence of W.A.S. Benson (see Cat. 19 - 23) on Eisenloffel has often been stated. The copper and brass designs of both workshops rely on simple forms with minimal decoration and on the repetition of favourite motifs or elements, but Eisenloffel's angular shapes are in general more uncompromisingly severe than Benson's. That Eisenloffel's work was thought similar to Benson's at the time can be shown by a curious suite of events following the exhibition of Dutch decorative arts in Copenhagen in 1904. Eisenloffel sent some twenty pieces of metalwork, accompanied by his own thumbnail sketches showing which items were to be displayed together (the sketches include this kettle). The exhibition was held in the Kunstindustrimuseum in Copenhagen, then under the direction of Pietro Krohn, and the museum acquired some seven pieces by Eisenloffel. But in 1908, under Krohn's successor, all but one of those pieces were sold at an auction in the museum itself, miscatalogued as the work of Benson, London (Burgers, C., 'De Nederlandsche tentoonstelling van decoratieve Kunst in het Museum van Kunstnijverheld te Kopenhagen', Antiek 7Jg. no.1, 9ff. 1972, 14-15, pl. 9).
Information supplementary to Rudoe 1994:
See also Hans Wichmann, 'Industrial Design , Unikate, Serienerzeugnisse. Die Neue Sammlung, Ein neuer Museumtype des 20. Jahrunderts', Munich 1986, p. 152.
- Location
- Not on display
- Condition
- The burner lacks the wick-adjusting knob.
- Associated events
- Designed for: Turin Exhibition 1902
- Acquisition date
- 1987
- Department
- Britain, Europe and Prehistory
- Registration number
- 1987,0110.1
