Heart of Brass - NYTimes.com Carl Auböck has a venerable history and more than 4,500 products to its name, yet the century-old Viennese design company remains relatively obscure. "It always struck me as strange that people in design who seem to know everything about everything don't know anything about this," says Brian Janusiak of Project No. 8, who worked with the Austrian photographer Clemens Kois on "Carl Auböck: The Workshop," out this month from powerHouse Books. Even those who have made a sport of hunting for Auböck's signature brass hands and bookends may be surprised to learn that since 1912, the company has been led by four Carl Auböcks, one of whom palled around with Walter Gropius. Or that their wares encompass a staggering range of typologies, from paperweights to oddities like sculptural pipe racks, cookie holders and paintbrush stands. As Kois points out, after World War II "we weren't allowed to be loud. No one realized we were making such cool things.