Illustration: Paul Haustein. Lace design, c1911.
Much of the surviving work by the German designer Paul Haustein is in metalwork, much of it produced during the Art Deco period and therefore he is often identified as being a designer of that period specifically. However, Haustein was born in 1880 and had a long and fruitful career before the Art Deco era dawned.
Haustein was in Munich during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, a particularly richly creative period of the Bavarian city's life. He was also a member of the Darmstadt Artists' Colony along with the likes of Richard Riemerschmid and Peter Behrens, his speciality at the time being that of goldsmith. However, Haustein, like so many artists, designers and craftspeople of his era, worked a number of disciplines, not all of which were sympathetic or complementary to their favoured discipline. In some respects, this widening of creative interest and adaptability proved to be a fascinating and expanding experience for the decorative arts of Europe. That it was widely common throughout the nineteenth century, and indeed well into the twentieth, is fortuitous as it allows us to experience creative work from disciplines and genres that sometimes broke rules that were set by the medium itself. By coming from a different direction and with a number of unusual tools and a different set of vocabulary, a designer could well move the discipline on to a different format, even if only at a personal level. However, some experiments were produced on a much larger scale, by groups of individuals rather than the single. Admittedly, the cross-discipline scenario of the nineteenth century did not always achieve what it set out to, however, more times than not it has left a distinct advantage to future generations, allowing them to understand through examples, how cross-discipline relationships can work creatively.
Illustration: Paul Haustein. Lace design, c1912.
Shown in this article are two examples of lace work produced by Haustein in the early second decade of the twentieth century. Both are relatively complex with some of the work appearing as if in a form of filligree. To some extent, this can be explained by the fact that throughout the same period as the production of these two lace designs the designer was also producing both metalwork in the shape of candlesticks, bowls, chalices and candelabra as well as delicate and involved jewellery. Interestingly Haustein was also involved in marquetry work, sometimes on a small scale, but often on much larger and grander scale, during this same period. It would be surprising if none of these disciplines were to affect the production of these particular lace designs. There is to some extent a link between the delicate work of small scale metal and jewellery work and that of the discipline of lace craft. Both are produced by intensive and focused labour, often worked on an extremely small and personally intimate level.
What is particularly interesting is how far Haustein's surface pattern work, to some extent at least, seems influenced by the approach he used in his metal and jewellery work. Surface disciplines the designer worked in were as wide-ranging as rug work, embroidery and wallpaper design, and all showed significant elements of filigree type work or at least an element of open work that can easily be associated with forms of relatively delicate metalwork. This is not to say that Haustein was a metal worker who merely repeated the format in other disciplines, some of which worked, others not. It is more a case of a creative individual who had both innate skills and a unique vocabulary of his own, engineering and using those tools in disciplines that were perhaps unused to them. The designer would have complemented and worked within the rules of each discipline to a certain extent. However, it is the creative approach from outside the traditional craft that is truly the inspiration for others.
Illustration: Paul Haustein. Jewellery design, c1912.
The idea of cross-pollination and cross-discipline is a truly expansive and creative experience. That it was relatively common throughout the nineteenth and well into the twentieth centuries, is shown by the wealth of unusual approaches to particular craft traditions and gave rise, at least in the broad discipline of textiles, to innovations in the textile craft and art worlds that are still with us today. In fact, much of what we see and associate as standard cross-discipline work today, is the product of many small and large scale experiments and creative overlaps, such as the work of Paul Haustein. These experiments were and are invaluable lessons in widening the scope of the personal exploration of all craft disciplines.
Further reading links:
Art Nouveau Jewelry
305 Authentic Art Nouveau Jewelry Designs
Art Nouveau Jewellery from Pforzheim (English and German Edition)
Art Nouveau Jewelry: A Practical Guide to Its History and Beauty, with Pictures of Over 150 Pieces of Jewelry and a Compendium of Internati
Jugendstil Guertelschlieýen / Art Nouveau Buckles: Sammlung Kreuzer / The Kreuzer Collection
The Art Nouveau Style
European art nouveau jewelry,
IMPORTANT ART NOUVEAU JEWELRY & OBJETS DE VERTU APRIL 24, 1971
Modern Style: Jugendstil/Art Nouveau 1899-1905
Jugendstil.
Art Nouveau: Utopia: Reconciling the Irreconcilable (Taschen's 25th Anniversary Special Editions Series)
ART NOUVEAU (LCT)
Art Nouveau Designs (Design Source Books)
Art Nouveau (Dover Pictura)
Art Nouveau: An Anthology of Design and Illustration from "The Studio" (Dover Pictorial Archives)
Art Nouveau (Art and Ideas Series)
Art Nouveau Decorative Ironwork
Art Nouveau, 1890-1914
