Michael Powolny

Michael  Powolny

Michael  Powolny

 Is perhaps best known for his figura

Michael  Powolny

earthenware ceramics. From 1913, he also began to work in glass and produced a small range of distinctive and highly stylish pieces in association with the Wiener Werkstatte.

Michael  Powolny

Powolny's first loves were ceramics and sculpture. At the Wiener Keramik studio he founded in 1906 with Berthold Loffler, he designed a specialized range of decorative figural ceramics featuring cherubic, distinctly

 Germanic-looking boys. These small sculptures were made in white earthenware with black detailing and often incorporated stylized flowers and distinctive black chevrons around the base.

The Wiener Keramik studio employed designers from the newly formed Wiener Werkstatte  with whom, from 1907, Powolny developed close professional contacts. He became one of their leading designers, and they began to sell and distribute his glass designs.

Michael  Powolny

From 1913,Michael Powolny produced designs for such leading Austrian glassworks as J. & L. Lobmeyr (est. 

1822) and Loetz Many of these designs were in the style associated with the Wiener Werkstatte, and consisted of blown-cased forms with dramatic contrasting black linear detailing that accentuated the shapes.


 Although first produced about 1914, these stylish linear pieces anticipated the Art Deco style and continued to sell successfully into the 1930s