Paula Straus, Art Deco Silver Bowl, 835/000 By Peter Bruckmann And Sons Heilbronn Germany

Paula Straus / Bruckmann & Söhne – Art Déco Bowl on Three Feet, Silver 835, Heilbronn circa 1928–1930 Design: Paula Straus (Stuttgart 1894 – Auschwitz 1943) · Peter Bruckmann & Söhne, Heilbronn · Silver 835 · Model #13161 · Design May 1928

A silver 835 bowl on three leaf-shaped feet, model #13161, designed by Paula Straus in May 1928 and executed by the Silberwarenfabrik Peter Bruckmann & Söhne in Heilbronn circa 1928–1930. Height 6.3 cm · width 16.3 cm · depth 16.3 cm · weight 296.5 g. Hallmarks: crescent moon · crown · 835 · Bruckmann maker's mark · model #13161. Very good original condition.

The form — sober, geometric, carried on three stylised leaf-shaped feet — is characteristic of Paula Straus's Art Déco vocabulary: pure geometry, functional, without superfluous ornament, reflecting both Bauhaus rigour and her own personal style, defined by a purist formal idiom of great authority.

Paula Straus (Stuttgart, 1894 – Auschwitz, 1943) was one of the first women in Germany to qualify as a master goldsmith and silversmith, trained at the Kunstgewerbeschule in Stuttgart where she was a master student under Paul Haustein. In 1925, the president of the Deutscher Werkbund, Peter Bruckmann Jr., engaged her in the design studio of his Heilbronn silver factory — making her Germany's first female industrial designer in this field. There she created over 100 designs — tea and coffee services, candlesticks, bowls, cutlery, Christian ceremonial objects and Judaica. Dismissed in 1933 following the Great Depression and rising antisemitic legislation, she founded her own jewellery atelier in Stuttgart in 1935, forcibly closed by the National Socialists in 1939. After her attempts to emigrate to the Netherlands failed, she was deported and murdered at Auschwitz in 1943. Her work was rediscovered through the exhibitions FrauenSilber at the Badisches Landesmuseum in Karlsruhe (2011) and the Bröhan-Museum in Berlin. Her personal archives are held at the Jüdisches Museum in Berlin.

To own a work by Paula Straus is to preserve the memory of a major Art Déco artist, whose fate illustrates the destruction of cultures and talents by National Socialist barbarism.

• Height: 6.3 cm · Width: 16.3 cm · Depth: 16.3 cm · Weight: 296.5 g
• Material: silver 835
• Hallmarks: crescent moon · crown · 835 · Bruckmann maker's mark · model #13161
• Design: Paula Straus, May 1928
• Production: Peter Bruckmann & Söhne, Heilbronn, circa 1928–1930
• Literature: FrauenSilber. Paula Straus, Emmy Roth & Co. Silberschmiedinnen der Bauhauszeit, Badisches Landesmuseum Karlsruhe, 2011 · Sänger / Hennze / Jecht, Silber aus Heilbronn für die Welt: Peter Bruckmann und Söhne (1805–1973), Heilbronn
• Public collections: Bröhan-Museum, Berlin · Jüdisches Museum, Berlin
• Condition: very good original condition

Seen in museums — available to you.

Available for viewing by appointment at our Düsseldorf gallery.

Keywords integrated: Paula Straus, Bruckmann Heilbronn, Art Déco bowl silver 835, model #13161, 1928, Bauhaus women design, Badisches Landesmuseum Karlsruhe, Bröhan-Museum Berlin, Jüdisches Museum Berlin