Flower Table, Mod. No. M 436

• Design: Josef Hoffmann (1870‒1956)
• Execution: Wiener Werkstätte
• c. 1905
• Galvanized sheet iron, lacquered
• Leopold Museum, Vienna

Josef Hoffmann developed a distinctive style that is simple and elegant, influenced by his teacher Wagner’s functionalist principles and aesthetics. This lattice table, part of Hoffmann’s series of objects made of galvanized sheet iron, was designed in 1905 and produced by the Vienna Workshop. The squares were mechanically punched out of the metal sheet. The individual parts were then soldered and finished with white lacquer. The square pattern covering the entire furniture exemplifies Hoffmann’s principles for design.