Designer: Richard Rohac (1906 – 1956)

Item: Tear Shaped Ashtray

Manufactured by: Richard Rohac

Country of origin: Austria

Year made: 1940s or early 50s

Materials: Patinated and unpolished brass

Dimensions: ¾” x 4 ¼” x 2 ¼”

Condition: Excellent

Description: Another very fine, well executed and elegant patinated brass work by Richard Rohac.  This heavy and well cast work rivals the overall quality, craftsmanship and design of the work of Karl Hagenauer and Carl Auböck, but at a much more reasonable price point.  Marked with the reverse Rs and “Made in Austria” as shown in the photograph.  This example also retains its original label from the shop in the Netherlands where this was originally retailed when it was new.

This is likely an immediate post WWII object because patination was used to obscure the impurities in the brass that was used by melting down shell casings from spent munitions. This was a method also utilized by the Hagenauer and Auböck workshops because of the scarcity of raw materials. The unpainted sections shows slight tonal differences that are the result of using this less pure brass.

Rohac was a master metal craftsman who began and completed his apprenticeship with the Werkstatte Hagenauer in Vienna, Austria as a teenager and stayed with the workshop another nine years before opening his own metalwork business in 1932.