Wright Auction

I’ve been involved in the magical and expansive world of the Carl Auböck Werkstätte for over 25 years, and my collection has grown from a single brass egg to over five hundred pieces at one point. After decades of being forgotten, Carl Auböck II is now back in the forefront of the historical design discussion. Posthumously he is once again receiving the same level of critical attention he received while he was alive, when the Werkstätte won four Compasso d’Oro awards at the Triennale di Milano in the 1950s. The Auböck Werkstätte designed over 4,500 unique designs throughout its lifespan, during which Carl’s son Carl Auböck III, was also an active contributor. For a father and son to have designed so many unique designs is unheard of, and is an amazing feat in its own right.

I’ll never forget the first time we put some Auböck pieces out for sale at The Modern Show at the Gramercy Park Armory in the late 1990s. A dealer couple from Chicago walked by, saw the pieces prominently showcased in our booth, and came up to me and asked what I was doing. Confused, I said, “Uh, selling some pieces of Auböck”. They frowned and said, “Why are you going to spoil it? This was our secret!”. And it kind of was; this was pre-internet and the Auböck signature is very hard to read, so unless you were a research freak (like we all were), there was no way to know who designed these amazing pieces. I think we sold all of the pieces in our booth and we continued to spoil the secret for years (and will continue to do so!). The MAK Museum will mount a retrospective of the Werkstätte’s oeuvre this May.