Wendt and Kühn Spandosen / Splinter Boxes - from Packaging to Collectible

Posted on November 09, 2015 | 0 Comments

For their 100th Anniversary, Wendt and Kühn revived an almost forgotten art form, hand-decorated Spandosen or Splinter boxes. They are thinner than, yet reminiscent of, Shaker bentwood boxes.

The original Wendt and Kühn splinter boxes were first created 90 years ago. While Grete Wendt focused almost exclusively on the creation of figures, her college friend and company co-founder Grete Kühn used her talent to paint and decorate wonderful wooden boxes - the containers for Wendt and Kühn's figures. With her unmistakable brush strokes and rich imagination, she turned simple wooden containers into exquisite works of art. In all shapes and sizes, from round to oval, even heart-shaped, they were delicately decorated with geometrical, floral tendrils, and folkloric elements.

Grete Kühn's boxes were works of art used for the safekeeping of works of art - one piece of art wrapped in another.

Click here to view Wendt and Kühn's video of a splinter box in the making.

We stock three of these incredible boxes -