St. Pölten 1880 - 1939 Salzburg
Two Narrow Glass Cabinets
Beech, softwood, white varnish, black decorative borders, faceted glass, hammered brass shoes
H 181 cm, W 40 cm, D 46 cm, Box D 25.5 cm
Professionally restored, original white varnish partially touched up, decorative borders stained black
Parts of the interior are on show in the Landesmuseum Niederösterreich.
Provenienz:
Villa Godderidge, St. Pölten, Viehofen, Austinstraße no. 89
Literatur:
cf. Das Interieur, vol. XIII, Vienna 1912, ill. p. 49
Bundesdenkmalamt (ed.), Österreichische Kunsttopographie. Die Kunstdenkmäler der Stadt St. Pölten und ihrer eingemeindeten Ortschaften, vol. LIV, Horn 1999, ill. p. 547, no. 688
Hans Ofner was born in St. Pölten on 28 April 1880. His talent for freehand drawing was already evident during his schooldays. In the summer of 1903, he attended the preparatory school at the Vienna School of Arts and Crafts under Willibald Schulmeister and Carl Otto Czeschka. From 1903 to 1906 Ofner studied under Josef Hoffmann (School
of Architecture) and between 1904 and 1906 under Adele von Stark (Special Studio for Enamel). Later, people liked to call him the ‘gifted Hoffmann student’. Hoffmann described Ofner as very diligent and skilful, and in characterising the latter’s work noted as follows: ‘Design and execution of furniture and craftwork such as jewellery, bindings,
leather goods, embroidery etc. Mostly works independently.’ In the years prior to the First World War, Hans Ofner was very successful as an architect. In 1905 he presented craftwork in the St. Pölten Stadtsäle (municipal halls). In 1908 he exhibited at the Galerie Zimmermann in Munich and at the Vienna Kunstschau, and in 1909 at the International
Kunstschau, likewise in Vienna. In 1911 two villas in St. Pölten were fully furnished based on designs by Hans Ofner. A building belonging to the soft-iron foundry Gasser, formerly used as a factory, was converted for residential use by Ofner, a commission from the factory owner Schießl. He designed the furnishings for the villa of lace manufacturer
Fred Godderidge, too. In the years following the First World War, it was not easy for Ofner to reconnect with his artistic career of the pre-war era. However, in the early 1920s, there were several smaller successes. In 1927, Ofner married Elise Winkler, who was three years younger than him. They subsequently lived together in homes in Dürnstein and Salzburg, where Hans Ofner died in 1939.1
The furniture shown here is part of the furnishings for the villa of lace manufacturer Fred Godderidge. We own other high-calibre pieces of furniture from the Godderidge villa, which we prominently displayed and published in the course of our exhibition ‘Josef Hoffmann Hans Ofner’ in 2022.
1 This biography of Hans Ofner is based on: Exhibition catalogue ‘Der St. Pöltner
Jugendstilarchitekt Hans Ofner 1880–1939’, St. Pölten City Museum, St. Pölten 1989,
pp. 4ff