May 09, 2013 - Sale 2313

Sale 2313 - Lot 41

Price Realized: $ 840
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 1,000 - $ 1,500
(DUTCH DESIGN.) Cohen, Fré (Sophia Frederika). Original packaging design for Inventum-Bilthoven. Created for a type of heating or lighting device, marked on box as model number 1007, 220 volts, from Catalogue number 66. 190x220x225 mm, board, printed in blue, black, gold, and red, marked "FRÉCOHEN" on side panel, and "N.V. Inventum-Bildhoven" on two sides, original stamped panels, aged, with dampstains, toning, and edgewear, plain bottom portion more visibly worn, some attempts at color restoration, primarily along edges. (IO). [Netherlands, circa 1935]

Additional Details

scarce example of original package design by jewish female graphic artist fré cohen. Cohen's earliest work was in illustration and advertising for the cable company, Draka, before she shifted to design and layout work for publications by the Social Democratic Workers Party in addition to her own freelance work. She worked illegally throughout the war years, hiding in various cities from Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Diemen and, finally Borne, where she was captured by the Germans. She ended her life in 1943 at the age of 39. Much of her work was rescued by her sister, Fietje Cohen and placed in the Amsterdam Historical Museum by Fietje's son, Ernst Walt Mathe. Other items are held in Amsterdam in the collections of the Stedelijk Museum and the International Society of Social History which lists a similar box design.
Inventum was founded by visionary Alexander Vosmaer in 1908 and has been in continuous operation. It was among the first companies to experiment with lighting and electrical devices, and produced the first commercially available electric kettle. Cohen's design for the product shows her bold, modern color palette with influences of DeStijl and Constructivism, which playfully works in motifs of tubes, wires, and a hanging lighting device.