Postcards of the Wiener Werkstätte

The Wiener Werkstätte or Vienna Workshops were founded in 1903 by architect Josef Hoffmann and artist Koloman Moser. Beginning in 1907, the Wiener Werkstätte began publishing a numbered series of postcards, which would ultimately exceed 1,000. There were numerous cards designed to celebrate holidays, such as Easter, Christmas, New Year’s, and others. When the fashion department was founded in 1910, costume and accessories became another popular subject depicted in the postcards, along with illustrations of places in Vienna and elsewhere in the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Europe. All of the major designers who worked for the firm were contributors in this medium including Josef Hoffmann, Oskar Kokoschka, Egon Schiele, and Dagobert Peche. Other noteworthy artists who were active in this area include Moriz Jung, Rudolf Kalvach, Mela Koehler, and Maria Likarz, among others. This publication is the first fully illustrated catalogue raisonné on Wiener Werkstätte postcards to appear in English.