Wilhelm Wagenfeld was one of the few Bauhaus designers to establish a continuing and successful involvement with industrial mass production. For Jenaer Glas he experimented with glass manufactured with silica and boron oxide. This highly heat-resistant material was developed in Germany at the Schott and Genossen Glassworks, a company founded in 1884 in Jena, Germany, by chemist Otto Schott. It was Schott's son, Erich, who enlisted the help of Bauhaus designers to create housewares with the "borosilicate" glass, testing the Bauhaus philosophy of harmony between function and design in industrial production.
Wagenfeld used the practical and translucent material to design a tea set perfectly aligned with Modernist principles of functionality and simplicity. He once said that an object's most important feature was its "unpretentiousness".
His classic tea set design would become a signature piece and is still being made at present with only slight design modifications.
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| Jenaer Glas Wagenfeld Tea Service |
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| Original Wilhelm Wagenfeld glass teacup and saucer (set of 6 available) by Jenaer Glas. Designed and created by Wilhelm Wagenfeld in 1931 and inspired by the Bauhaus. Available from Robinson Antiques. |
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| Original Schott makers mark |
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