Manufacture Friedrich GOLDSCHEIDER - Lot 136

Manufacture Friedrich GOLDSCHEIDER Bust of Dante circa 1898-1900 patinated plaster on a blackened wooden base h: 30 cm; w: 40.3 cm; d: 17.5 cm stamped 'F. GOLDSHEIDER / WIEN' (listed under number GS 3) from the Friedrich Goldscheider factory; the additional stamp 'VERVIELFÄLTIGUNG / VORBEHALTEN' (listed under GS Z 9) numbered 16 7?3 a smaller model is listed in the catalog raisonné under number 749 In 1885, Friedrich Goldscheider (1845-1897), a key figure of the Jugendstil (Art Nouveau) movement in the German-speaking world, founded a ceramics factory in Vienna: the Goldscheider'sche Porzellan-Manufactur und Majolica-Fabrik ("Goldscheider Porcelain and Majolica Factory"). The workshop soon acquired a major reputation. By the end of the century, the company's success had spread internationally: with the help of his children, Friedrich opened branches in Florence, Paris, Leipzig and as far afield as the United States, and his works were in demand the world over. World War II forced the Goldscheider family into exile in the USA, and the factory was soon sold. To this day, the factory is considered one of the most remarkable and prolific of the 19th and 20th centuries, particularly for its Art Nouveau and Art Deco productions. In 2016, the Museum of Applied Arts in Vienna dedicated a monographic exhibition to her. Our sculpture is one of the first busts produced by the factory. It was created a few years after Friedrich Goldscheider won several medals for his research into a patina process imitating bronze. This process, patented in 1891, gave a noble appearance to readily available materials, and contributed greatly to the reputation of the Manufacture, whose production was exported to every continent.