Neue Werkkunst: Michael Rachlis Räume
Berlin Leipzig Wien: Friedrich Ernst Hübsch Verlag, 1929. First edition. Hardcover. Quarto. (18)pp., 34 plates, 38pp. Original faux vellum boards with gilt lettering on cover and spine. Publisher's device on title page. Max Osborn describes Michael Rachlis' work as kind, light and comfortable, Rachlis as somebody with innate taste who understood to offer a joyful and festive attitude in gruff German times as well as somebody with a delicate sense for the organic that guides the architectural work.
Known for his Berlin set designs for the theater, this volume is illustrated with 34 offset reproductions of Rachlis interiors showing his work from 1929. Includes extraordinary designs with sixteen plates showing rooms and halls of a villa in Berlin-Grunewald, three plates of a car dealer sales room, six plates with the interior of the Hotel Eden, six plates of the Berlin nightclub Cascade, and three plates of Bol's Tavern. At rear 38 pages with illustrated advertisements of relevant Berlin interior design businesses. Text in German. Binding lightly stained and rubbed with light wear along edges, small chips along spine. Light foxing of endpapers. Starting at half-title. Few pages with crease at upper right corner and two small closed tears in margins of plate 27. Binding in overall good, interior in very good condition. g to vg. Item #46426
Michael Rachlis was born into a Jewish family, studied at the Technische Hochschule München, and worked in Berlin as a set designer starting in 1913. Later he designed country houses as well as interiors, at times in collaboration with the Hungarian architect Ferenc Domány. In 1922/23 the architect Hans Nitzschke worked at Rachlis's studio. Starting in 1928 Rachlis worked for the Deutsche Werkstätte, a leading furniture manufacturer who's archives were deemed to be a valuable cultural asset. Rachlis emigrated to London in 1935 and worked as an architect until his death in 1952.
Price: $250.00