Bowl with two putti Gustav Gurschner ca. 1908

Gustav Gurschner provided various designs for bowls that were intended as business card holders or simply as versatile, decorative vessels. Here, two children or Putti appear to be playfully stretching a cloth. Held at each end it forms a flat, bowl-shaped receptacle.
Like the much-admired statuette of a kneeling woman with an expansively draped robe, this motif also allows the artist to artfully cast a cloth in folds, making the draping appear very natural at the same time.
The bowl consists of two identical parts joined together. Among other bronze vases, centerpieces and statuettes, it is depicted in the sales catalogue of Viennese foundry k.k. Kunst-Erzgiesserei Wien, showing the range of objects Gurschner let produce and distribute by this company at the turn of the century