Studio: international art (88.1924)

CONTEMPORARY AUSTRIAN BOOK-
BINDINGS. BY A. S. LEVETUS

AUSTRIAN bindings show that in-
dividuality of refined taste in design
and exquisiteness of workmanship charac-
teristic of the other Austrian applied
arts, qualities which have become recog-
nized generally, which have given them a
front place among the nations. 0 0
The revival of the Austrian applied
arts and their official recognition by the
state, led to most admirable results, for
it meant that the best modern artists
were appointed as teachers, and that
they were given a free hand. The estab-
lishment of the Wiener Werkstatte, in
Vienna, at the beginning of the present
century, opened out new channels. Among
their other workshops was one for book-
binding, which still exists. The pass-
word was beauty and restraint in design,
perfection of execution. The craftsman's
true place was assigned to him, the
finished object was to bear his initials
as also those of the designer. But while
the craftsman kept to the traditions of his
art in making his bindings, the artists
abandoned all traditions and created forms
and designs consistent with modernity. This

BINDING IN WINE-RED GOAT-
SKIN. DESIGNED BY DR. R. JUNK
EXECUTED BY KARL SCHEIBE

BINDING IN WHITE AND BROWN
CALF. DESIGNED BY D. PECHE
EXECUTED BY WIENER WERKSTATTE

same independence and spontaneity of
thought in design is the distinguishing feat-
ure in modern Austrian bindings. Some of
those here reproduced have been executed
in the Wiener Werkstatte, notably those by
Professor Josef Hoffmann and Dagobert
Peche, whose death little more than a year
ago, in his prime, is a loss to decorative
art deeply to be deplored. Others were
made in the workshops of Albert Gunther
who, coming of generations of artistic
bookbinders, has kept up their high
estate in workmanship. Two or three
firms, notably Karl Scheibe, as a relaxation
from more remunerative pursuits, engage
artists of so high a rank as Dr. Rudolf
Junk to make their designs, which they
execute with that same strength of purpose
and sense of quality everywhere present
in the design. Some of the binders are
at once artist-craftsmen, like Heinz
Bitzau, who has set up a workshop of his
own in Linz, his native city. It is char-
acteristic of his work that though he
studied at the Art Bookbinders' School
in Berlin, his designs are essentially
Austrian in feeling. 0000
Mention should be made of the grace
and refinement of the designs and the
exquisite workmanship of those bindings
executed by the Wiener Werkstatte, by

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