Yes, No, Maybe So? Josef Hoffmann's Flatware

Often times I look at various designs and try to place myself back in time when these object were first created. I wonder if I would have found them too different or utterly fantastic. I also try to look at them today with fresh eyes and wonder if (of course with an enormous pretend disposable income) I would want them.

I find this set of flatware eye catching. However, being practical, I wonder if the proportions of the fork (the handles being as thick as the tines) might cause me to poke myself in the mouth. I have this thing about flatware -- being a Libra and all -- I have to have balance in my hand. I don’t like for the bowl of a spoon or the tines of a fork to be too heavy in relation to the handle. And vice versa.

So what do you all think? Yes, No, Maybe So -- would you like a set?

Hoffmann's sketch

Josef Hoffmann designed this set of flatware for the Wiener Werkstätte in 1903-1904. All three founding members -- Hoffman, Koloman Moser and Fritz Wämdorfer -- ordered a set for their own.

Hoffmann made available three versions: silver plate, sterling silver and gilded silver. It was first publicly displayed at an exhibition in Vienna in 1906. Critics felt the smooth geometric shapes and broad surfaces not very practical. They didn’t like how stark and austere the design was devoid of any ornamentation except for the row of beads at the end.

crab fork and butter knife

A German newspaper described the service as “uncomfortable” and the shape suggestive of doctors’ tools. Another newspaper stated that Hoffmann made “geometry, not art” and his flatware was doomed to catch on with the public.

This line called Flaches Modell (Flat Model) included thirty-three in the set, and had a limited production from 1904-1908. Hoffmann went on to create other versions similar in style.

(Top image from Hiesinger and Marcus, Landmarks of Twentieth-Century Design; last two available from Bel Etage, Vienna)