A Golden Thread
(1900-1938)
The Prutscher collection of Viennese children’s books
PART ONE
Part One illustrates the historical environment in which Otto Prutscher trained as an architect, designer, teacher and collector. Setting out from the MAK, the Museum of Applied Arts, the documentary takes us along the Ring, a broad boulevard stretching right around the heart of Vienna, to discover the places that Otto attended for work or pleasure with his artist friends of the Secession and the Wiener Werkstätte, including the Kunsthistorisches Museum and the city’s Theater Museum.
PART TWO
This is the story of an architect, Otto Prutscher, of his city, Vienna, and of his children’s books, the collection of a lifetime. A Gold Thread (1900-38) is divided into two separate yet complementary parts.
In Part Two the focus shifts from the city to the collection, and in particular to the key works in the donation, many of them published by the Burgverlag bookshop. In addition to the books, the documentary also explores various places in Vienna, including the Lobmeyr glassworks and the premises of confectioners Altmann & Kühne, whose interiors show how art and craftsmanship came together in the work of such complete artists (Gesamtkunstwerkler) as Otto Prutscher in the early 20th century.