Avant-garde service Bauhaus workshops Haël Margarete Heymann-Loebenstein

Tea, coffee, and breakfast service: 2 cups, 4 saucers/plates, sugar bowl, creamer, and pitcher. A rare example from the Haël ceramic workshops (Haëlwerkstätten für künstlerische Keramik), founded near Berlin in 1923 by the young—born in 1899—and talented ceramist Margarethe Heymann (Heymann-Loebenstein-Marx), a Bauhaus student who studied under Johannes Itten, among others. In its brief existence, this workshop was very active in producing avant-garde utilitarian pieces designed according to Bauhaus principles. These pieces, with their bold monochrome or abstract designs, were vehemently denounced in the German press of the time as "degenerate art, " often through photographic comparisons between a classic floral dinner service and these pure geometric forms. The Haël workshops were sold for a pittance in 1936, a result of the forced flight of their founder to Jerusalem and then England, where she continued her work, though without recapturing the creative and avant-garde boldness of her earlier pieces. Produced during the Weimar Republic, she died there in 1990. This set is in very good overall condition, with a tiny chip on the spout of the teapot (see photo), traces of glaze and enamel, and minor imperfections on the saucers. This ceramic is particularly light and delicate. These pieces enjoyed great international success, exhibited in 1925 at the Der Stürm gallery alongside works by Kandinsky, Kurt Schwitters, and Moholy-Nagy. Various Haël pieces and services are now in the collections of international museums (MoMA and various other institutions). The Bröhann Museum in Berlin dedicated a retrospective to her in 2023, showcasing 250 of her pieces. All pieces are signed Haël and bear the design number. Diameter of plates with raised rim: 15 cm; diameter of saucers: 10 cm; diameter, height: 5.3 cm. Potter diameter: 26 cm, height 13 cm with lid. Very well-protected packaging for shipping.