Showcase cabinet Josef Frank Svenskt Tenn ca. 1946

The architect, designer and theorist Josef Frank was born in Austria in 1885. Like his contemporaries, Le Corbusier and Walter Gropius, he became an early advocate of modernist principles. In 1933, Frank emigrated from the Nazi regime to Sweden, where he became a permanent resident and found great resonance with his toned-down version of modernist design. For more than thirty years, Frank was the most renowned designer for the Stockholm-based company Svenskt Tenn. He died in Stockholm in 1967.

Frank repeatedly worked for Josef Hoffmann and Wiener Werkstätte projects until 1920, for instance at the Primavesi country house in Winkelsdorf (1913/14). Frank also taught the subject of building construction at the Vienna School of Arts and Crafts from 1919 to 1925.
Josef Hoffmann and Josef Frank also worked together frequently within the framework of the German and Austrian Werkbund, for example on the Werkbund exhibition in 1930 and the construction of the Vienna Werkbund housing estate in 1932.
Throughout his life, Josef Frank was dedicated to functional forms in his buildings. This commitment is embodied to perfection in this showcase designed in 1946.
Supported by four gyroscopic feet, the main body virtually seems to float on the lower pedestal. Narrow wooden strips are flush with the horizontal glass compartments, revealing an undisturbed view of the interior of this piece of exhibition furniture. Mirrored bottom and back panels further accentuate the objects stored within, reflecting the interior of the room.