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.
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.
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)