Sintrax coffee machine
(c. 1925)
- Medium
- glass, metal, rubber, wood
- Measurements
- (a-c) 12.6 × 21.4 × 13.8 cm (overall)
(d-e) 25.2 x12.5 cm diameter (overall) - Place/s of Execution
- Jena, Germany
- Inscription
- (a) printed in brown on base c.: Schott & Gen. / Jenaer Glas (all in a circle) (all in a square) / ¾ Ltr
(d) printed in grey u.c.: Jena (illeg.) Glas / Schott & Gen / Jena (all in a circle) (all in a square) / Sintrax / ¾ Ltr.
printed in grey on rear u.c.: D f w (monogram) (in a flower)
(e) printed in grey c.: ½ ÷ ¾ Ltr. - Accession Number
- 2024.660.a-e
- Department
- International Decorative Arts
- Credit Line
- National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Gift of Arne Grosskopf through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program, 2024 - Gallery location
- Late 19th & early 20th Century Paintings & Decorative Arts Gallery
Level 2, NGV International - About this work
-
Gerhard Marcks trained as a sculptor in Berlin before joining the Bauhaus in 1919, where he was artistic director of the pottery workshop until 1925. When the Nazis came to power in 1933, Marcks was dismissed and barred from artistic practice. In 1925 Marcks was approached by Eric Schott at the Jenaer Glassworks to produce a new design for their heat-resistant glass coffee percolator, their original design being thought to look too much like a scientific instrument. The rubber fitting was originally produced in red, as on this example, but after the war was made in black. The ebonised wooden handle has been attributed by some to Wilhelm Wagenfeld but there is no record of his involvement with the Sintrax percolator.
