Designer: Richard Rohac (1906 – 1956)

Item: Table Centerpiece Serving Bowl

Manufactured by: Richard Rohac

Country of origin: Austria

Year made: 1950s

Materials: Brass with nickel plating

Dimensions: 7 ¼” x 9 ½” x 6 ¼” and the diameter of the bowl is 8 ½”

Condition: Very good and some very minor discoloration of the nickel-plating in the wave, as shown.

Description: Here is a very rare, and perhaps one-of-a-kind, centerpiece for a table with a serving bowl atop a fish riding a large wave.  We have handled and seen many Rohac objects, but this is a first.  Rohac seemed fond of the fish motif as it was used in a number of objects he produced. This bears many stylistic similarities with objects produced at the Werkstatte Hagenauer, and this makes sense as he apprenticed there for nine years before opening his own shop in 1932.  Rohac rarely nickel-plated his works, but that was a common Hagenauer trait.  Although this does not have Rohac’s reverse R’s mark, it does bear his unique “Made in Austria” mark, as shown.  And we have seen and handled other Rohac works that only had his unique Made in Austria identifying mark. This is an exceptional object worthy of any serious collector of Hagenauer or Viennese metal arts.