Hartmut Lang SPITZEN DER WIENER WERKSTÄTTE – Dagobert Peche Gammelby (D) 2016, 112 pp., 30×22.5 cm, hardback Text: German The first part of the book presents the concept of the Wiener Werkstätte, its history and its significance. The Wiener Werkstätte was founded in 1903 and was an association of productive craftsman-designers. Literature about the Wiener Werkstätte is already available, but to date little was known about their lace. Hartmut Lang carried out his research in the MAK (The Austrian Museum for applied Art in Vienna) where a lot of lace from the Wiener Werkstätte is still kept. Here he presents information about design, production and marketing of bobbin lace by the Wiener Werkstätte and especially about Dagobert Peche, one of the best-known artists of the establishment, whose designs include many for bobbin lace. Other designers are introduced as well. The designs are very different and the numerous illustrations demonstrate this variety; on the other hand, almost all of them share a typical Wiener-Werkstätte style and this too is brought out clearly. Attention must be drawn to the appendix which contains more than 100 photographs of other pieces of lace from the Wiener Werkstätte. In the second part, 16 patterns for lace designed by Dagobert Peche are presented for you to work. There is some straight lace among them but most are bobbin lace pictures of man and animals (bird, greyhound), often mythological figures such as “Daphne” or “Water Deity” or symbolizations like “Spring” or “Wind”. For each pattern there are illustrations of the original lace (if available) and of the reconstruction, a clear coloured working diagram and the lace pricking. Single limited edition!.
