- Museum number
- 1989,0106.1
- Description
-
Candlestick; brass, the handle formed from the same sheet of brass as the base.
- Production date
- 1931 (designed pre)
- Dimensions
-
Height: 15.30 centimetres
-
Width: 16.80 centimetres (max)
- $Inscriptions
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- Curator's comments
- Text from J. Rudoe, 'Decorative Arts 1850-1950. A catalogue of the British Museum collection'. 2nd ed. no.254.
Albert Reimann was both sculptor and architect; he founded and directed a school of applied art in Berlin from 1902 to 1935. He then settled in London, where in 1937 his son opened a new Reimann School at 4-10 Regency Street, SW1, which survived until it was bombed in 1942.
Reimann visited New York in the late 1920s and early 1930s (information supplied in 1989 by his widow, the late Mrs E. Reimann). Metalwork from the Reimann Werkstatten in Berlin was included in the Third International Exhibition of Contemporary Industrial Art held by the American Federation of Arts at the Metropolitan Museum in New York and at museums in Boston, Chicago and Cleveland in 1930-31 (cat. nos 260-63). It may have been as a result of this exhibition that Reimann was commissioned by the Chase Company to design this candlestick. According to an article in Creative Art 9, New York 1931, 475-82, Reimann sent his designs from Germany; the candlestick is illustrated on p. 479. The article discusses the large-scale machine production of metal household goods to high aesthetic standards. Other items made by the Chase Brass & Copper Company are illustrated, but individual designers are not credited. Nor is Reimann credited with any of the items listed in the Chase Company's chrome-ware catalogue of 1936-7, which does not include the candlestick (G.L. Koch ed., 'Chase Chrome', (reprint of Chase catalogue for 1936-7) Stamford, Connecticut 1978). Thus it is not possible to identify the full range of designs made by Reimann for Chase. However, one further item stamped with the Chase factory mark and 'Design by Reimann' is known to the present author: a four-branch cross-shaped candlestick executed in both brass and copper. (I am grateful to Ken Forster for drawing this to my attention.)
The British Museum's candlestick, with its use of thick-gauge brass, involved considerable hand-work. The stem probably used stamped parts, but the base and handle are almost certainly cut and worked by hand from the thick brass sheet. The scarcity of surviving examples of Chase metalwork designed by Reimann suggests that his designs may not have been ideally suited to mass-production techniques. Certainly examples of this candlestick are not common; for an identical pair of candlesticks in copper in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (inv. no. 1976.382.4), see A. Duncan, 'American Art Deco', New York 1987, 94.
Reimann's designs for Chase are exceptional in that he himself made few designs for objects; the metal workshop at the Reimann-Schule in Berlin was directed by Karl Heubler and contemporary illustrations are always captioned 'Schule Reimann, under the direction of Heubler'. The simple geometric forms of the candlestick may be compared with Reimann-Schule metalwork illustrated in 'Farbe und Form' during the early 1930s. The Reimann-Schule was a private school, as distinct from the state-run Bauhaus, but like the Bauhaus, metalwork was produced by hand on a small scale and few examples are to be found in public collections. For a silver coffee and tea service of 1932 in the Brohan Collection, Berlin, see K.H. Brohan III, 'Kunst der 20er und 30er Jahre. Sammlung Karl H. Brohan, Berlin, Band III. Gemalde, Skulpturen, Kunsthandwerk, Industriedesign', Berlin 1985, no. 452. In the same collection is a brass double candlestick (K.H. Brohan ed.,'Neuerwerbungen für das Brohan-Museum Berlin', Berlin 1986.no. 15).
For information supplementary to Rudoe 1994 see: D. Johnson & L. Pina, 'Chase Complete. Deco Specialities of the Chase Brass & Copper Co.', Aiglen, Pennsylvania, 1999. p. 35.
where the caption to the illustration, which is from the relevant page of the 1935 Chase catalogue, reads :
'THE DEE HANDLE CANDLESTICK'.
'Unusual - describes this candlestick with its convenient handle that makes it very practical. A. Reimann design. It comes in satin brass or satin copper 6 3/4 inches high . Individually packed in gift box. Price $3.00 each, retail.'
For further discussion of the Reimann-Schule, see Dedo von Kerssenbrock-Krosigk, 'Modern Art of Metalwork. Bröhan-Museum, Berlin, 2001, pp. 278-80.
- Location
- On display (G48/dc6)
- Acquisition date
- 1989
- Department
- Britain, Europe and Prehistory
- Registration number
- 1989,0106.1
