A Family Tree Grows

My,  hoe simply adding a middle name or birth/death date can cause a family tree to grow. Assuming the connections made on MyHeritage.com are correct, the Josephu family tree now has 328 people in 120 families. Some luminaries include renowned violinist Florian Zajic, legendary sculptor Ivan Mestrovic, and actor Otto Waldis. There's a small thread of a chance that there's a connection to Gustav Mahler.

We know some of the well know friends of my grandfather include composer Emerich Kalman, Walter Slezak and Jose Ferrer.

Update 1-10-16: Another illustrious addition to the family tree was revealed - the Oscar winning film director Milos Forman.

A family Forest

Thanks to the genealogical prowess of friend Herbert Fischer, and the power of an internet family tree site, my family tree has grown into a forest with over 277 people and 103 connect families. And in addition to the close family, there are many out there who share some DNA throughout Europe and even in Israel.

 

Among them are renown violinist, a Mayor knighted by the Austrian Emperor, Franz Joseph, and of course my grandfather, Josef, and his brother, Florian, respect sculptors. 

 

One name in three is fairly common, Mahler, but wouldn't it be a kick to find perhaps there's a relation to Gustav Mahler?

Looking back at the research...

Just stepping back a bit to look at and reorganize the research materials for the book on Josef Josephu - Florian Josephu ... wowsers. In addition to two filled large file boxes, there are 100's of emails and may 100's of scans of photos, articles and certificates. 15 years is really adding up, and now I'm on the slow process of putting into form. The challenge is...what to include and what to exclude. In addition to the biographical text there will be many photos and copies of certificates....I wouldn't be surprised if the final text exceeds 200 pages....easily.

More discovery

This Memorial Day weekend was put to use with more research, and putting more thoughts down on paper. The project is taking form. I do need to find a better way to organize so as to make it easier to go through all the materials while I process the information.

Some patience paid off...while searching the internet I found two more Argentor bronze statues by Josef Josephu. One titled "Spring," the other "Summer." This makes me wonder if there was originally 4 pieces and there's a "Fall" and "Winter" out there somewhere. Hopefully, time will tell.

August Rodin

In February, 1940, Josef Josephu had his first American exhibition, just four months after immigrating to the United States. The showing was held at Steinway Hall on Manhattan's West 57th Street. All of the pieces were brought by ship from Vienna, along with Josef, his wife, Olga, and their daughter, Micaela. The exhibit was reviewed by the New York Times, which called Josef "a modern-day Rodin."

Here's some rare footage of August Rodin sculpting in his studio.
http://voxpopulisphere.com/2015/03/13/video-4/

More discoveries!

Once again, thanks to the help of friend Herbert Fischer, we've made another discovery. There was a company that Josef worked with in Vienna called Argentor. They sold goods made of silver, bronze and gold.

 

I had located a copy of their catalog from the 1930's but was having difficulty getting a response from the seller. Herbert purchased it on my behalf and sent me photos of the pages. Among are offered small reproductions of several pieces I own, smaller versions of a few pieces I've known about, and then some pieces I did not know of. It was a wonderful find. For example, here is a cut from the page showing one of two pieces Josef called "The Kiss" (both masters are in my apartment).

 

 

 

Another discovery

I was contacted a few months ago through this blog by someone in Wisconsin who had two pieces by my grandfather, Josef. He sent me photos. Very exciting! These are pieces I did not know existed - supporting my continuing theory that there are still many more works by Josephu waiting be rediscovered.

To add to my please, these are dated 1946 which means they were created after Josef came to the US, making them even more rare. They are a set of lamps, each different. Standing 20" tall, with a base of 8.5" ... the owner said they were plaster and he had them restored: they are excellent.

I hadn't originally intended on purchasing these, but when my cousin Georg heard of them he suggest let's get them, and reproduce in bronze. So We got them! They look great next to my couch. The next step will be to see how to best travel them to Vienna, both cost-effectively and safely. I plan on visiting this December, so one option might be to somehow pack and bring on the plane.