Arnold Heim: Küsnachter Horn, 1902 – Porcelain Art Mug

Two figures stand on the winter shingle at the Küsnachter Horn, the low promontory on the Küsnacht shore of Lake Zurich; behind them the screw steamer Goldbach crosses the lake under a plume of smoke. The date is 5 January 1902. The photographer was nineteen years old, and his caption in the archive is a single word: Küsnacht.

Arnold Heim (1882–1965) was a Swiss geologist who inherited both the discipline and the passion for Alpine fieldwork from his father, Albert Heim — one of the founders of modern Alpine geology. He studied at ETH Zurich and went on to make significant contributions to the understanding of tectonic structures in the Swiss Alps, later extending his research to geological surveys in China and to comparative studies of the Alps and the Himalayas. His family background was exceptional: his mother, Marie Heim-Vögtlin, was the first woman in Switzerland to practise medicine. The original of this picture is a collodion print, 7.9 × 10.9 cm, mounted on card — an early sheet from a photographic record he would go on keeping for six decades of fieldwork.

Fine porcelain, 10 oz — 104 mm high, 75 mm across the base. The image runs around the body; handle and rim stay white. Dishwasher and microwave safe.

Arnold Heim, Am Küsnachterhorn, 5 January 1902, collodion print mounted on card, 7.9 × 10.9 cm. ETH-Bibliothek Zürich, Bildarchiv, Hs_0494b-0004-014-AL. Licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. doi.org/10.3932/ethz-a-001200128

Selected by Dr. Walther Fuchs for the Tazzarte collection.