Johann Philipp Ferdinand Preiss (13 February 1882 – 29 July 1943) was a German sculptor. He was one of the leading sculptors of the Art Deco period.
Early life
Ferdinand Preiss was born in
Erbach im Odenwald
Erbach () is a town and the district seat of the Odenwaldkreis (district) in Hesse, Germany. It has a population of around 13,000.
Geography
Location
The town lies in the ''Mittelgebirge'' Odenwald at elevations between 200 and 560 m in t ...
as one of six children to Karl Daniel Heinrich Preiss and his wife Katharine Preiss née Elisabetham. He attended school s in
Michelstadt
Michelstadt () in the Odenwald is a town in the Odenwaldkreis (district) in southern Hesse, Germany between Darmstadt and Heidelberg. It has a population of 28,629 people.
Geography
Location
Michelstadt is the biggest town in the Odenwaldkre ...
and had aspirations to become an engineer. Both of his parents died within a short time span when he was 15 and shortly thereafter he was apprenticed to the ivory carver Philipp Willmann and lived with his family. In 1901 he traveled to Rome and Paris. He became a friend and acquaintance of Arthur Kassler in
Baden-Baden
Baden-Baden () is a spa town in the states of Germany, state of Baden-Württemberg, south-western Germany, at the north-western border of the Black Forest mountain range on the small river Oos (river), Oos, ten kilometres (six miles) east of the ...
, which led to the founding of the company Preiss & Kassler operating from
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...
. Kassler became the business-minded partner and Preiss controlled artistic production.
Career and marriage
In 1907 he married Margarethe Hilme, producing two children, Harry and Lucie. Initially the company created small ivory carvings of children and statuettes of classical form, often carved from old ivory
billiard balls
A billiard ball is a small, hard ball used in cue sports, such as carom billiards, pool, and snooker. The number, type, diameter, color, and pattern of the balls differ depending upon the specific game being played. Various particular ball pr ...
. From 1910 the firm grew to specialize in limited edition
Art Deco
Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...
cabinet sculptures that used painted
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