Collections of any kind are indispensable documents of their times. They give information about how our predecessors thought and lived. At the same time they are also expressions of the values of the eras in which they were collected. The Dr. Albert Figdor Collection, brought together in Vienna between 1869 and 1927 was the largest and most important private collection of its time. At the core of Figdor's passion for collecting were objects of all sorts which, whatever their differences, had common artistic and historic-cultural values. The MAK opens up its depot and, using selected objects from the collection such as textiles, small pieces of furniture, tools, cutlery, jewelry, glassware and ceramics, documents everyday life from medieval times until well into the 19th century.

Curator Elisabeth Schmuttermeier, Metal and Wiener Werkstätte Archive