Wessely, Vilmos

Applied artist. Vilmos Wessely entered the decorative painting course at the School of Applied Arts in 1898. His decorations of stylised birds were published in Magyar Iparművészet in 1899. His toy designs were mainly executed in the Hegybánya-Szélakna State Children’s Toy Teaching Workshop, and were first shown at the 1904 Christmas Exhibition of the Applied Arts Association. That was also when he showed his first item of children’s furniture, a “toy storage bench” made, according to the inscription, for the Györgyi family. He then regularly entered his toys, and for the 1905 Arad Exhibition designed a doll’s kitchen with furniture. His first children’s room design is known from the Milan International Exhibition, where his creations won a gold medal. He showed another children’s room at the 1907 Spring Exhibition, and a photograph of the interior was published in the New York magazine The Craftsman. Reports after 1907 usually concern his ornamental objects. He and Lajos Nádos won second prize for their joint entry to a competition for the furnishing of workers’ housing in Kispest (one-room flats) in 1909.