Teapot

This teapot is of hard-paste porcelain, with flat, pierced handles to body and lid; the flat bridge between spout and body is also pierced with a circular hole. It is decorated with a band of roses and lines stencilled in yellow, designed by Antoinette Krasnik.

The teapot is from the first of several services produced by in the Porzellan-Manufaktur Josef B�ck in Vienna and exhibited at the �sterreichisches Museum fur angewandte Kunst, Vienna, in the early 1900s. It was first produced in undecorated white porcelain. With its striking combination of curvilinear outline and geometric handles, it was a remarkably bold design to put into production at the time, especially as the flat handles are impractical for a teapot and difficult to use.

At least five different patterns for this service are recorded, all designed by pupils of Kolo Moser at the Kunstgewerbeschule, Vienna. Many of the original drawings survive in the design archive of the firm of B�ck, now in the Museum f�r angewandte Kunst, Vienna.