Bauhaus Bottle Cooler Marked Burg Giebichenstein by Karl Müller 1920s

Bauhaus Bottle Cooler  by Karl Müller (1988-1972) marked Burg Giebichenstein between 1925-1930. Brass, embossed, cast, chased. 22 H x 18 B x 24 D cm.

From 1923, Karl Müller led the metal workshop of Burg Giebichenstein for three decades and shaped its style with his personality and his unconventional love of experimentation. As a trained caterer, he studied sculpture with Joseph Wackerle and Hugo Lederer. His work included the traditional work of the silversmith, the drifting, mounting and chiselling of vessels as well as the testing of new, base metals and the development of serial silverware for the small series in the own workshop or for the industry. Mueller’s spectrum included utility vessels, silverware, jewelery, lamps, doorknobs, figurative plastic and picture plates. All his works were determined by a fine sense of the surface.

Under Karl Müller’s aegis, the metal class at Burg Giebichenstein in Halle – alongside the Bauhaus at the time – featured one of Germany’s most modern art schools, which trained its students in production workshops – with great appeal and presence. It was not as radical as the Bauhaus and put double-tracked on both the precious and the industrial series – which ensured its wide acceptance.