Ashtray with Cigarette Holder

Marianne Brandt, 1924

Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin / © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2017
Aschenschale mit Zigarettenablage, Autor: Marianne Brandt, 1924 / Foto: Gunter Lepkowski.

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As was typical in the early years of the Bauhaus, Marianne Brandt designed the ashtray logically as a combination of various basic geometric shapes: spherical and cylindrical shapes are used for the ash container, its lid with an off-centre opening and the cigarette holder, while the base of the structure that provides stability is made of bars arranged in a cross shape, with the curve of the bowl embedded in them.

Although the perfect surface treatment and minimized design suggest mechanical manufacturing and mass production, the object is a unique item produced with time-consuming manual work.

  1. Literature:
  2. Weber, Klaus für das Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin (1992): Die Metallwerkstatt am Bauhaus, Berlin.
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