Cocktailshaker, Wilhelm Wagenfeld 1959 for WMF, Geislingen, Germany

Description

Wilhelm Wagenfeld, perhaps the most significant German industrial designer after Peter Behrens, was a designer with visions. For him the industrialization and the mass production meant an opportunity to establish a classless society, at least as far as it concerned the taste. Things he wanted to design, „every bit as nice and convenient that the richest wishes to own it, and so cheap, that also the poorest can buy it “(1946). His immortal, timeless creations from simple things of daily use, considerably dominated and influenced the design of the 20th century.

After the war Wilhelm Wagenfeld became professor at the Hochschule für Bildende Künste in Berlin and founded in 1954 the “Workshop Wagenfeld” in Stuttgart. Already in 1949 he had the intensive cooperation with the WMF. He was the artistic director of the WMF and in this function consulted to quality issues in all business areas. The here offered shaker is one of the most beautiful designs of the post-war era, committed to the Werkbund and Bauhausideals, bringing the company an image as a high quality, solid manufacturer. Wagenfeld’s shaker was neither fashionable or particularly striking or noble, its quality was founded in the balance of the form, the restrained and elegant lines and ergonomic handling, which also allowed smaller hands to seize and shake the beaker and cover.

Wagenfeld’s work from this period gave him worldwide recognition in the professional world.
Next to his drafts for Braun, Peill & Putzler and Buchsteiner, Wagenfeld’s designs were perceived as a new cultural property of a young democracy and were awarded on the Milan Triennale events with the Grand Prix. The WMF benefited in particular from Wagenfeld’s drafts end of the 1950s until the beginning of the 1960s.