Midcentury Wall Hook “Rabbit” by Walter Bosse

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About the Item

rare brass ebonized wall hook “rabbit”. Designed by Walter Bosse for Hertha Baller, Vienna from the 1950s.
Used but in very good vintage condition.Creator: Herta Baller (Manufacturer),Walter Bosse (Designer)Dimensions: Height: 6.7 in (17 cm)Width: 3.94 in (10 cm)Depth: 3.55 in (9 cm)Style: Mid-Century Modern (Of the Period)Materials and Techniques: Brass,EbonizedPlace of Origin: AustriaPeriod: 1950-1959Date of Manufacture: 1950sCondition: GoodWear consistent with age and use.Seller Location: Vienna, ATReference Number: 1stDibs: LU1174243634582Shop All Walter Bosse

Walter Bosse

Credited with thousands of works and models for ceramic pieces, Walter Bosse was an intensely prolific designer. The modernist Austrian sculptor and ceramist was best known for his distinctive Black Golden series of decorative objects and figurines, particularly his hedgehog ashtrays. Bosses mid-century and Art Deco works were popular as gifts for politicians and royalty worldwide, remaining coveted among collectors today.

Bosse was born in Vienna in 1904 to artist parents his father, Julius, was a portrait painter for the Austrian Imperial Court. Bosse studied at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna from 1918 to 1921 under Austrian sculptor Michael Powolny and Austrian painter Franz Cizek. Later, he continued at the Munich School of Applied Arts in Germany under Austrian architect and designer Josef Hoffmann, a founder of the Vienna Secession movement.

Early in his career, Bosse worked as a designer at several ceramics manufacturers, including Augarten Porcelain Works in 1924, Goldscheider Porcelain Manufactory and Majolica Factory in 1926 and Metzler and Ortloff in 1927. In 1925, Bosse displayed several pieces at the International Exposition of Modern Industrial and Decorative Arts in Paris, which introduced the Art Deco style to a global audience.

In 1931, Bosse opened a shop in Kufstein, Austria, selling ceramic gift items. Owing to the crippling economic effects of the Great Depression, however, Bosse was forced to close his shop in 1937. He returned to Vienna in 1938 and opened another business, Bosse Keramik, where he sold toys, glass, textiles and more. In the late 1940s, Bosse experimented with small-scale brass sculptures and desk accessories coated in black ceramic glaze. With Austrian designer Herta Baller, Bosse formed the Bosse-Baller company to manufacture the Black Golden line of figurines, which became wildly popular worldwide.

Despite Bosses success, he struggled financially and moved to Iserlohn, Germany, in 1953. Meanwhile, Baller continued to manufacture and sell Bosses designs, which were so popular that forgers copied and sold counterfeit editions of Bosses works around the world. The 1950s marked the debut of the artists whimsically zoomorphic hedgehog ashtrays these were cast in brass, and a hedgehog ashtray in any other material is not a Bosse original.

Bosse spent the rest of his life embroiled in court battles to protect his designs, leaving him penniless by the time he died. Today authentic Bosse pieces from wall-mounted sculptures to tableware continue to be highly sought after by collectors.

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