R. Rahl: Auf der Höhe – Viennese Art Postcard – Porcelain Art Mug

Auf der Höhe — "At the summit" — shows a woman mountaineer standing on a dome of snow, one hand on her alpenstock, a red cap and a red scarf against the wind, the ranges lying far below. She is dressed for climbing, not for looking at mountains: a belted jacket and knickerbockers, wool stockings, nailed boots.

The sheet is a Viennese art postcard, published by the Eckhart Verlag at Fuhrmanngasse 18 in the Josefstadt, Vienna's eighth district, as number 1563. It is signed R. Rahl at lower left and titled in Fraktur at lower right. Cards like it were the small change of Viennese graphic art before the First World War: watercolours reproduced in colour and sold by the sheet.

What the picture records, besides a view, is a change in dress. On the mountain the skirt had given way to the knickerbocker suit — practical, and still contentious enough to be worth drawing.

For the mug the paper ground has been taken out. Sky and snow are the white of the porcelain; only the figure, the blue shadow of the slope and the distant ranges remain. The original card is in the collection of Dr. Walther Fuchs, Küsnacht.

Fine Porcelain — 10 oz. Dishwasher and microwave safe.

Selected by Dr. Walther Fuchs for the Tazzarte collection.