Viennese jewellers do not use the colourless precious stones much. They generally combine jewels with enamel, and also with what they themselves call the coloured Halbedelsteine, or half-jewels, such as the agate, onyx, cornelian, and other less valuable precious stones. The modern tendency is in every case to rely upon colour and line for effect rather than upon massive form, so that the greater number of new designs, or of revived designs of the past, require for their satisfactory treatment what may be almost characterised as a new technique.
First of all, the modern buckle for the belt or girdle claims attention. The lately revived custom of wearing the blouse led, as a matter of course, to the use of the belt with a more or less ornate buckle, just as, a few years ago, the long necklace came into general use again. The young women of the present day found both all ready for use in the jewel-chests of their grandmothers. It seems likely, too, that there will presently be a revival of the costly shoulder-clasps which used to be the fashion in the time of the Empire, and if this be the case, the new fancy will probably, to some extent, oust the belt buckle from popular favour. In the designing of ornaments for the neck, art jewellers have far more scope than formerly for the exercise of their imagination, and they are disposed, to some extent, to follow the French mode, that is to say, they make necklaces flat and broad, so as to give an effect of slenderness to the throat of the wearer. It is a matter of course that combs and pins for the hair are often of very fine workmanship, showing much skill and taste on the part of their designers. Strange to say, however, even in Vienna, few rings for women of real art value are produced. In certain cases, however, the pendants in gold relief, in crystal, or in enamel, are of pleasing, though not particularly original design.
Working in enamel is of course an independent art in itself, and to begin with, I must remark that, as a general rule, beautiful as are the colour effects produced by Viennese craftsmen, it is impossible to reproduce exactly the delicate charm of the original sketches from which the designs are worked out. Very good results can, however, be obtained in what the French call émail à jour, or émail translucide, as well as in the old-fashioned opaque enamel. It would, however, be out of place here to attempt to describe the various modifications of what may now be called an international art.
Gustav Gurschner is a sculptor par excellence. His fingers are accustomed to moulding clay or plaster designs in such a manner as to be readily reproduced in bronze. His slim and graceful statuettes holding candles or gongs, and other artistically designed objects for household use, have all a distinctly Viennese character. His charming nude figures are full alike of childlike innocence and nervous strength, and are moreover instinct with the spiritual expression which naturally belonged to their originals. Gurschner's designs for jewellery have very much the same effect upon a true judge. The great thing distinguishing his work from that of his contemporaries is the fact that it is modelled from the living figure, not as is generally the case, from mere water-colour sketches. The difference cannot fail to strike the most superficial observer. Elsewhere, colour is often the chief consideration; with Gurschner it is form.
In modern decorative work, silver is now very largely used and appreciated. It is her skilful use of this material which has won so high a position for Elsa Unger, a daughter of the wonderfully successful etcher, Professor William Unger. Elsa Unger has a very great predilection for silver, and has attained to rare skill in expressing herself in that material. She herself knows perfectly well how to deal with it at every stage of its progress as art material. She can hammer it out and chisel it; she can engrave it, and combine with it beautiful émail à jour of soft, harmonious colouring. One of the most noteworthy peculiarities of Elsa Unger's work is, indeed, her mastery of her material. She is not content, as are unfortunately most of her contemporaries, with delegating to others the working out of her designs, but she herself sees to every detail, doing all the work with her own hands. Some of her articles, such as gentlemen's studs and sleeve-links, in beaten silver, relieved with blue enamel, are alike simple and elegant, and have the rare advantage of being also cheap.
With Elsa Unger may be classed another woman worker in silver, Anna Wagner, who has produced amongst other tasteful work a beautiful silver buckle, relieved with enamel. Amongst men who have won a reputation as skilful workers in silver maybe named E. Holzinger and Franz Mesmer, who were trained in the same institution as Elsa Unger and Anna Wagner, the School of Art Craftsmanship connected with the Museum of Vienna, well known for the thoroughness of the instruction given in it. In this academy, which was thoroughly reformed a few years ago, and is now under the able direction of Baron Myrbach, the students learn to esteem skill in art craftsmanship as it deserves, and become thoroughly familiar with the materials employed in it. In the course of their training, feeling for true beauty and elegance is mixed, so to speak, with their very blood, becoming part of their natures, so that they cannot go far wrong. Look, for instance, at some of the combs made by Elsa Unger. How delicately harmonised are the beaten silver and the pale lilac-coloured enamel, and how well the gracefully curving lines of the two materials blend with and melt into each other! How chastely effective, moreover, is the way in which the leaf-motive is worked out in the pins for the hair designed by Mesmer, and what a happy thought it was to make the many-coloured half-jewels, or jewels of minor value, emerge as they do from the beaten silver. These works are, moreover, a very striking example of how necessity may sometimes become a virtue. The cheapness of material, so essential in an educational establishment, has not been allowed to detract in the very slightest degree from the beauty of the work produced; so that it is possible to have a real work of art, of which but few examples are produced, at a very low price—say from about thirty-five shillings; and that work is not a machine-made article, but one the production of which, by his or her own hand, has been a true labour of love to the designer, marking a real progress in art culture.
To the Technical Academy of Vienna the architect, Otto Prutscher, and the painter, V. Schoenthoner, also owe much, but the charm of their work consists rather in its colour than in its form. Much is to be hoped in the future from both of these talented artists, and what they have already produced proves that there has been no sacrifice of individuality, no cramping of special tendencies, such as is so much to be deprecated elsewhere, in the training they have received.
Otto Prutscher's necklaces and rings are remarkable alike for the beauty and harmonious variety of their colouring. He uses enamel to a great extent, and also quite small precious stones. Very uncommon, too, is the way in which he employs metal, though only enough of it to hold the enamel in its place. It would appear as if the artist had in his mind a vision of the women who are to wear his work, who are too tender and frail to carry any weight, so that the use of much metal in ornaments for them would be quite unsuitable. For a Salome or a Queen of Sheba that sort of thing is scarcely appropriate—but it is done for the softly nurtured Mignonne of the present day. The little coloured pins designed by F. Schoenthoner are also noticeable for their elegance and suitability for the purpose for which they are intended.
A word of unstinted praise must be accorded to the graceful designs of the talented Fräulein Eugenie Munk, whose skill and good taste have been devoted to the production of a great deal of very beautiful and refined jewellery.