Walter Bosse Hedgehog Pin Tray

A charming brass tray in the form of a hedgehog, designed by Walter Bosse for Herta Baller, Austria, in the early 1950's.

Considering the remarkable whit and brilliance of Walter Bosse, this delightful hedgehog was likely intended to be used as a pin tray. 

The useful tray is abstract and Modernist in style, yet perfectly captures the essence of a hedgehog with its rotund form, pointed tail, and cute triangular nose. Whilst most of the creature's features are polished to a golden shine, the hedgehog's main body is black, and has been decorated with simplistic lines to indicate quills. 

Owing to Bosse's most famous design, a family of stackable hedgehog ashtrays, the woodland creature has become synonymous with the designer and his work. This pin tray pre-dates the stacking hedgehogs, and was produced in much fewer quantities.