First Design and Final Object

Drawings by Viennese Gold and Silversmiths

15.06.2005 - 28.05.2006

MAK Metal Study Collection

A successful mix of objects and designs: the exhibition presents silver objects and pieces of jewelry from the first half of the 19th century together with contemporaneous master drawings from the MAK collection. These designs were the result of a reform of the qualification regulations for handworkers, which required that prospective goldsmiths and silversmiths attend a drawing school. The drawings shown here, some of them with the original appraisals given by the board of examiners, give a vibrant impression of the artistic values of the era in which they were created – as an attempt to achieve form in times of upheaval.

Curator Elisabeth Schmuttermeier,
MAK Metal and Wiener Werkstätte Archive