Background
This striking period door handle design was originally created for the administrative offices of the giant I.G. Farben paint factory in Frankfurt.
The building, completed in 1931, was the work of the architect and designer Hans Poelzig.
One of the progenitors of the Modern Movement, Poelzig participated in the first major International Style project, the 1927 Die Wohnung expo.
The event saw the construction of an entire estate of modernist dwellings in the elevated Weissenhof suburb of Stuttgart.
Poelzig contributed a prototype single family house alongside Le Corbusier, Mies van der Rohe, Walter Gropius and Peter Behrens among others.
His imposing I.G. Farben building still stands and has become the centre piece of the Goethe University campus in Frankfurt am Main. Poelzig died in 1936, aged 67.
Description
There are two pairs available, sold separately.
They come complete with their original circular escutcheons and wonderful covered circular key hole plates.
The length of the grip section is about 11 cm. The spindle is 0.8 cm approx.
These are aluminium examples, probably manufactured in the 1940s. The manufacturer is unknown although both Wehag and ORGO are known to have produced the design for the I.G. Farben factory and for several years afterwards.
They are in very good used condition with expected signs of age and use but no significant damages. These handles will look fabulous given a new lease of life in the right setting
Literature:
Siegfried Gronert, Türdrücker der Moderne, eine Designgeschichte, W. König, Köln, 1991