Beaded Handbag

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Object Name: 
Beaded Handbag
Place Made: 
Accession Number: 
97.3.1
Dimensions: 
Overall H: 21.0 cm, W: 18.7 cm, Th: 1.9 cm
Location: 
Not on Display
Date: 
about 1925
Web Description: 
The Wiener Werkstätte (Viennese Workshops) were established in 1903 by the architect and designer Josef Hoffmann (Austrian, 1870-1956). Wiener Werkstätte artists produced all kinds of decorative arts, from jewelry and accessories, such as this beaded purse, to complete room decorations. Like the English Arts and Crafts Movement, the Wiener Werkstätte aimed to combine utility, beauty, and affordability in their designs. Simple forms and geometric decoration are characteristic of these workshops, which ceased production in 1932.
Department: 
Provenance: 
Historical Design Inc., Source
1997-01-27
Category: 
Primary Description: 
Evening Bag. Opaque white, greenish brown glass beads; silk lining, metallic thread cord; drawn and sewn.
Glass of the Architects: Vienna, 1900-1937
Venue(s)
Corning Museum of Glass 2018-06-23 through 2019-01-06
Today, we think of architects as people who design buildings, construct skylines, and help create the visual identities of our cities and towns. But at the turn of the 20th century in Europe, the term architect applied not just to people who designed buildings, but to people who designed all aspects of interior decoration. They believed their role was to seamlessly integrate a modern aesthetic into all aspects of daily life. For these architects, furniture, ceramics, textiles, and glass, played an essential role in completing their new artistic vision. Glass of this period emerged from a confluence of ideas, individuals, and cultures, and reflected a spirit of modernity. Glass of the Architects: Vienna, 1900–1937 explores this transformative period in Austrian design. Approximately 170 objects, including the installation of Josef Hoffmann’s complete room, Boudoir d’une grande vedette (first displayed at the 1937 Paris World Exhibition), illustrate the immense variety of techniques and varied aesthetics of Austrian glass during this period. Together, architects and designers built upon existing traditions of glassmaking by leveraging the network of design and technical schools, and relying on manufacturers, retailers, and exhibitions to promote and disseminate their ideas on a global scale. Glass of the Architects: Vienna, 1900–1937 is a cooperation of the MAK and LE STANZE DEL VETRO. At the MAK and LE STANZE DEL VETRO, the exhibition was curated by Rainald Franz, MAK Curator, Glass and Ceramics Collection.
Venue(s)
Corning Museum of Glass 2013-05-18 through 2014-01-05
For 30,000 years, mankind has crafted beads from natural materials. With the discovery of glassmaking in the second millennium B.C., glass began to be used for this same purpose. Glass beads are universal. They have been produced throughout the 35 centuries of glass manufacturing, and by nearly every culture in the world. The glass beads and beaded objects on view in this exhibition are arranged thematically, comparing the manner in which diverse cultures have utilized beads, frequently for the same purposes, but sometimes for unique reasons. These themes explore how glass beads adorn the body and our possessions; how they convey messages about power and wealth, and identify the stages of human life; how they serve ritual purposes, as well as decorate clothing and objects used in rituals; and how they have been employed across the centuries as a means of exchange, both commercial and cultural. Through the centuries, beads have been made using a variety of processes. Understanding how beads were made has allowed scholars to follow the transmission of beads and beadmaking techniques across the globe. Across time and around the world, glass beads have become a common element of mankind. Through their manufacture and function, they are one of the strings that bind humanity together. “Life on a String” celebrates this common bond while also revealing the distinctiveness of different societies through their use of glass beads to celebrate their unique cultural heritage.
 
Modern Austrian Glass: Selections from the Corning Museum of Glass (2019) illustrated, pp. 82-83;
The Corning Museum of Glass: A Decade of Glass Collecting 1990-1999 (2000) illustrated, pp. 78-79, #132; BIB# 65446
Recent Important Acquisitions, 40 (1998) illustrated, p. 160, #46; BIB# AI40492
The Corning Museum of Glass Annual Report 1997 (1998) illustrated, p. 13; 16; BIB# AI95178
Vienna, 1900-1930: art in the home (1996) illustrated, p. 64 (beaded bag); BIB# 27061