Ferdinand Preiss

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Ferdinand Preiss, 1905

Johann Philipp Ferdinand Preiss , in the birth entry Preiss (born February 13, 1882 in Erbach (Odenwald) , † July 29, 1943 in Berlin ), was a German sculptor and one of the leading ivory carvers of Art Deco .

Life

Preiss was the son of the hotel operator Karl Daniel Heinrich Preiss and his wife Katharine geb. Reichert, who came from a family of ivory carvers. He was 15 years old when both parents died, after which he stayed with friends and relatives with his five siblings. He was accepted by the family of the Erbach ivory carver Philipp Willmann (1846–1910), who trained him in this profession. After he left Willmann's workshop around Easter 1901, Preiss attended the teaching institute of the Kunstgewerbemuseum Berlin in the same year . He then made trips to Milan, Rome and Paris. He worked as a designer and modeler of porcelain figures at the Ghidini company. From 1905 to 1907 he worked for the Carl Haebler company in Baden-Baden . In 1907 he married Margarethe Hilme from Berlin; their connection came from the son Harry and the daughter Lucie.

In Baden-Baden he met Arthur Kassler from Berlin, with whom he founded the company “ Preiss & Kassler , shop for ivory art with workshop” in 1906/1907 . At Lenbacherstrasse 1 in Berlin, they initially made small ivory sculptures, including children's statuettes and sculptures with motifs that were mainly based on classical ideals. From 1910 the first chryselephantine carvings were produced, for which they worked together with the foundry Aktien-Gesellschaft Gladenbeck from Berlin. In the same year Louis Kuchler and Ludwig Walther started working for the company, which now shortened its name to PK . In 1914 the company employed six ivory carvers from Erbach, but the business came to a standstill due to the First World War .

Signature Ferdinand Preiss

In 1920 Preiss and Kassler resumed production, with which they were extremely successful, especially in the 1920s. In the company, Preiss concentrated on the artistic direction, while Kassler took over the commercial area. The PK brand became particularly well known for its approximately 35 cm high statuettes in the Art Deco style, for which elaborately worked ivory and painted bronze were combined on often simple onyx or marble bases and sometimes also mounted on table clocks or lamp bases. The works usually bear the company monogram PK and the signature F. Preiss . His most famous works show modern, lifelike women from the world of sports and theater in the early 20th century. Preiss used dental drills for the production of the chryselephantine statues, with the help of which ivory could be processed more precisely and quickly. Most of the models designed by Ferdinand Preiss were mass-produced by the company and most of the production was exported to England and the United States . Rudolf Belling , Dorothea Charol , Walter Kassler , Richard W. Lange , Philip Lenz , Paul Philippe , Otto Poertzel and Ludwig Walter worked for the company PK , which took over the Berlin foundry Rosenthal & Maeder in 1929 .

The company existed until 1943; That year, Preiss died of a brain tumor at the age of 61. The workshop and the model warehouse at Ritterstrasse 36 in Berlin, which has existed since 1931, burned down completely shortly before the end of World War II in 1945 after a bomb attack.

Works by Ferdinand Preiss have ranged from £ 10,000 to £ 25,000 at auctions .

Works (selection)

  • Dancer with tambourine , 1900
  • Dreams , 1920
  • Vanity , 1925
  • Con Brio
  • Queen Elizabeth
  • Iphigenia
  • Pomona
  • Girl with beach ball
  • Autumn dancer
  • Aphrodite

literature

  • Victor Arwas : Art Deco Sculptures, Chryselephantine Statuettes of the Twenties and Thirties. Academy Editions, London 1975. ISBN 0-31205-251-0 , 107 pp.
  • Bryan Catley: Art Deco an Other Figures. Antique Collector's Club, Baron Publishing. Woodbridge 2005, 344 pp.
  • Alberto Shayo : Ferdinand Preiss. Art Deco Sculptor. The fire and the flame. Antique Collector's Club, Woodbridge 2005. ISBN 1-85149-482-0 , 191 pp.
  • Alberto Shayo: Statuettes art deco period. Antique Collectors Club Art Books, Woodbridge 2016. ISBN 1-85149-824-9 . P. 206.
  • Die Weltkunst , Volume 48. Federal Association of the German Art and Antiques Trade, Professional Group of the Austrian Antiques Trade, International Confederation of Dealers in Works of Art, Vereniging van Handelaren in Oude Kunst in Nederland. Kunst und Technik Verlags-GmbH, 1978. S. 1600, 1658ff.
  • Hans Werner Hegemann: European ivory art from Fin de Siècle to Art Deco: (1880-1940) . With an appendix about Ferdinand Preiss to the special exhibition in the German Ivory Museum Erbach / Odw., Exhibition from June 17 to September 17, 1978. German Ivory Museum, Erbach 19781978. 57 pp.

Web links

Commons : Ferdinand Preiss  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The world art. Volume 48. Federal Association of the German Art and Antiques Trade, Professional Group of the Austrian Antiques Trade, Art and Technology Publishing House, 1978. S. 1658.
  2. ^ Judith Miller : Miller's Field Guide: Art Deco. Hachette UK, 2014. ISBN 1-78472-014-3 . P. 133.
  3. ^ Ferdinand Preiss the 'Master' of ivory sculpture. In: worldcollectorsnet.com
personal data
SURNAME Preiss, Ferdinand
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Preiss, Johann Philipp Ferdinand (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German sculptor and ivory carver of Art Deco
DATE OF BIRTH February 13, 1882
PLACE OF BIRTH Erbach (Odenwald)
DATE OF DEATH July 29, 1943
Place of death Berlin