THE MARKS OF THE WIENER WERKSTÄTTE 
The marks of the Wiener Werkstätte, in the widest sense of the word, include not only 
registered trademarks and hallmarks, but also Company signets and labels. To these can 
be added the monograms of the artists who designed the work and the craftsmen who 
With slight exceptions, the appearance of these trademarks (meaning legally registered 
trademarks) and hallmarks remained the same from the time they came into being until 
the winding-up of the Wiener Werkstätte. Only their size and proportions were changed 
to suit requirements. However, there were many different types of signets and labels. 
What is more, the WW monogram and the words “Wiener Werkstätte” were usually very 
individually designed by the various artists who produced drafts for advertisements and 
posters. . . , , .. 
The importance which the Wiener Werkstätte attached to marking is evident from the 
fact that the most important types of marks and signets already existed when it was 
founded This is documented by the first recorded dates in the history of the Wiener 
Werkstätte (HR Gen VIII/124). The Rose Mark and WW monogram were also used from 
a very early date (Figs. 1-3, pp. 6, 8, 12). 
The first Statutes of the Wiener Werkstätte are dated 12th May 1903. The Rose Mark was 
registered on 22nd June 1903, and the hallmark of the WW monogram in an oval was 
probably entered at about the same time. A printed invoice dated 18th November 1903 
bears the familiär Company signet which combines the WW monogram with the words 
WIENER WERKSTÄTTE, and the stamp WIENER WERK STÄTTE appears twice in the 
form of a three-line text block (Fig. 4, p. 15). 
The so-called “Arbeitsprogramm” (manifesto) of the Wiener Werkstätte, which appeared 
as a separate publication in 1905, contains both typical marks - the Rose Mark and the 
WW monogram - twice (Fig. 5, p. 16). However, at that time only the Rose Mark was re- 
ferred to as a registered trade mark (the two other marks - the WW monogram and the 
trade name - were registered only at a later date. As mentioned above, the Rose Mark 
and the WW monogram were also incorporated as symbols in the design of the Wiener 
Werkstätte premises on Neustiftgasse in Vienna. The WW monogram appears as a relief 
above the doors (Fig. 2, p. 8). In another photograph apparently taken somewhat later 
two figures by Richard Luksch project from the two oblong fields (Fig. 3, p. 12). A dual 
Rose Mark in metal, the one the mirror image of the other, adorns the fireplace (Fig. 1, 
Articles in these rooms that can still be identified and dated (cf. Neuwirth, WW Avant 
garde 1984, p. 47) indicate that none of these photographs can have been taken before 
1904. Most of the metal objects depicted were designed in 1903 or 1904. 
At this point I think it important to point out that some of the captions under the photo 
graphs in the archive of the Wiener Werkstätte are misleading. Many were added at a 
later date, and above all the years given are not always completely accurate. For example, 
the dating of several photographs of the interior of the Wiener Werkstatte showrooms 
as 1903 is refutable, as it can be proved that many of the objects illustrated were only 
produced after 1903. . . 
Further documentation of this early time, though undated, survives in the form °1a book 
of punches from the Wiener Werkstätte’s bookbinding department (Figs. 8, 9, p. 21). Not 
only does it contain imprints of the punches required for bookbinding, it also proves that 
the Wiener Werkstätte had developed a completely new typography when it was 
founded. Compared to all the previous developments in this field, this typography was 
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