Goblet Werkstätte Hagenauer Wien ca. 1923

This exceptional goblet combines playful elegance with stylized restraint and vividly illustrates the design language of Werkstätte Hagenauer Wien in the early 1920s. Its finely chased surface features figural representations that evoke biblical or mythological themes. The stylized figures, clad in antique garments, are accompanied by vegetal motifs that lend the overall composition a decorative, almost ornamental quality.
The rhythmic, nearly graphic juxtaposition of human figures and botanical elements recalls designs of the Wiener Werkstätte, particularly the work of Dagobert Peche and Josef Hoffmann. As in these precedents, the emphasis lies not on narrative content, but on decorative impact and the abstracted interpretation of classical themes.
Due to the close stylistic similarities between the early works of Karl and Franz Hagenauer, the design cannot be definitively attributed to either brother. Together, they shaped the distinct visual language of the Hagenauer Workshop, in which elements of Jugendstil, Wiener Werkstätte, and Art Deco are strikingly combined.

The goblet stands as a compelling example of the artistic synthesis of function and decoration that defined the ambitions of Austria’s interwar design avant-garde.