Otto Blumel

Born in Augsburg, Otto Blümel studied architecture at the Technical University of Munich before taking up painting. From 1907 to 1914 he directed the design department of the United Workshops for Art in Craftsmanship in Munich, a pioneer of interior design that focused on craftsmanship and making function visible, and after meeting the writer Hermann Hesse in 1909 he designed several of his book covers.

His Nymphenburg Coat Stand of 1908, made by ClassiCon, is an archetypal classic of its kind, as at home in a Paris bistro as in a villa in Salzburg.