Teapot MT49
A teapot built from basic geometric forms: hemisphere, circle and cross. It was made by hand but looked like an industrial product.
The lid, the handle and the spout are each a different geometric form.
Marianne Brandt was born in 1893 in Chemnitz, Germany, and first studied painting and sculpture. In 1923 she entered the Bauhaus, the art school in Weimar that united art, craft and industry. She was one of the first women in the school’s metal workshop, which was led by László Moholy-Nagy. There, in 1924, while still a student, she made the MT49 teapot. Before that she had lived for a time in Norway with her husband, the Norwegian painter Erik Brandt.
The teapot is small, under ten centimetres high, and was intended for strong tea essence that was diluted with water. The body is a hemisphere resting on a cross-shaped foot. The lid is a flat disc with a small round knob. The handle is a semicircle of ebony. The spout is short and straight and set at an upward angle.
The form is built from simple basic geometric shapes: hemisphere, circle, cross and cylinder. Each part has its own form, yet they fit together. Uniting function with simple geometry was the Bauhaus ideal. The teapot looks like an industrial product, even though it was made by hand.
The pot is made of brass with a silver interior, and the handle and the lid’s knob are of ebony. The brass was hammered and shaped by hand in the workshop. Only a few examples were made. It was intended as a prototype for industrial production, but it was never manufactured on a large scale in Brandt’s time. It was unusual for women to be allowed to work in the metal workshop, as female students were often directed to the weaving workshop. Over time the metal workshop became one of the places at the Bauhaus where the aim was to develop prototypes for industry.
The teapot has been interpreted as an early example of modern design, in which form follows function. The cross-shaped foot keeps the pot steady. At the same time it is an aesthetic creation, almost a sculpture.
Brandt later became acting head of the metal workshop. She collaborated with industry and designed lamps, among other things, such as the Kandem lamp, which was produced in large numbers. After the Bauhaus closed she worked in various places, and after the Second World War she lived in East Germany. She died in 1983.
Examples of the teapot are now in several museums, including the British Museum in London and the Museum of Modern Art in New York. A reproduction was later made by an Italian design company. The teapot is regarded as one of the best-known objects from the Bauhaus and as an icon of modern design.