Information about the work and context of creation
Marianne Brandt-Liebe created her teapot in 1924, during the first stage period of the Bauhaus school in Dessau.
It was made out of nickel silver with ebony on the inside, and it is 7.5 cm high.
Like many designs at the Bauhaus, Marianne used basic forms as a basis for her aesthetic considerations. In this case, she uses the circle, the sphere, and the cylinder.
The mechanic production processes were still relatively unknown; it was believed that simple shapes were easier to produce industrially.
Although her prototype was created entirely by hand, this teapot has an industrial aesthetic. Later on, Marianne continued its designed for it to be mass-produced.
The functionalism of this object is obvious in the integrated filter, the anti-dripping spout, the lid not being in the centre, and the choice of ebony, which was heat-resistant, that would otherwise be too hot to handle.
Marianne Brandt was part of the Bauhaus universe, which was the result of the contributions of many renowned, avant-garde artists at the time; their goal was to combine art and technology with a modern vision, including the concept of mass production.
It was a school that was only operational for 14 years, between 1919 and 1933, as it was closed by the Nazi regime. Over 1250 students from 29 different countries studied at the Bauhaus. There, they designed metal ashtrays, ceramic cups, tapestries, stained glass windows, lamps, wooden and steel furniture, architectural buildings, etc., all with the spirit of the modern movement that they belonged to. These contributions still influence everyday objects today; we do not realise it, but some of them are in our homes.
Out of those nearly 1300 students, only 24 women graduated. Marianne was among them: she graduated in metallurgy. Most women graduated in textile, since they were all sent to the weaving workshop after the initiation course. Many of them did not settle and made her way through the architecture, metallurgy, photography or carpentry workshops, among others. They stood out in many art and design areas in the school: typography, photography, metallurgy, carpentry, architecture, glass making, painting, ceramics, furniture design, interior design, industrial design, etc.
There were other women students that, for one reason or another, had to quit their studies; but, while they were there, they produced outstanding contributions, which proved that they fully understood the Bauhaus principles.
Together with graduated architects by Bauhaus Wera Meyer-Waldeck, María Müller, Hilde Reiss and Annemarie Wilke, as well as Annemarie Wimmer, graduated interior decorator, we should add five students who, by circumstances, did not graduate, but contributed to architecture as much or more than what the school offered to them: Friedl Dicker, Benita Otte, Alma Buscher-Siedhoff, Lotte Stam-Beese and Lotte Gerson-Collein.
Some of them survived to World War II in Europe, others migrated to the United States, the Soviet Union, or Turkey, Palestine. Friedl Dicker, the architect, was murdered at the Auschwitz concentration camp; Alma Siedhoff-Buscher, the designer, died in a bombing.
