Stool

• Design for the Stonborough-Wittgenstein Apartment in Berlin
• Design: Josef Hoffmann (1870‒1956)
• Execution: Wiener Werkstätte
• 1905
• Beech, white setting, fabric
• Leopold Museum, Vienna

Margarete Wittgenstein, a sister to the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein, was the youngest daughter of a wealthy industrialist family. She had deep interests in art and design and was a patron to many Viennese artists. She adhered to the Vienna Workshop’s designs and commissioned Josef Hoffmann and Koloman Moser to decorate her new apartment at the time of her marriage. This white stool was likely made for the servants’ rooms. The squares on the sides and the arches on the front and back work as braces that stabilize the structure.