28 Facts About Slawa Duldig

Slawa Duldig nee Horowitz was an inventor, artist, interior designer, and teacher.

Slawa Duldig Horowitz was born in Horocko, Poland, the daughter of Nathan and Antonia Horowitz.

Slawa Duldig attended a convent school and showed early promise as a pianist.

On leaving school, Slawa Duldig received training in the fine arts at the Viennese School for Women and Girls.

From 1922 to 1925, Slawa Duldig studied with the Viennese sculptor, Anton Hanak, an affiliate of the late nineteenth-century Vienna Secession artistic movement and friend of the founder, Gustav Klimt.

In 1928, following a wet-weather visit to the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, Slawa Duldig conceived the idea for a manageable, handbag-sized folding umbrella.

Slawa Duldig drafted designs and obtained umbrella spokes from an industrial source on the pretext that she was designing a lampshade.

Slawa Duldig engaged a watchmaker to assist with the manufacturing process, bought some black silk fabric, made a pattern, and attached the silk to a shaft and spokes.

Karl Slawa Duldig suggested that the handle be widened to enable the spokes to fit inside.

Josef Hess, Slawa Duldig filed a patent application for the umbrella design.

Ten-thousand 'Flirt' umbrellas sold in the first year of production, with Slawa Duldig receiving annual royalties until 1938.

Slawa and Karl Duldig resided in an apartment at 2 Enzingergasse, Door 14, Vienna, which they decorated in the style of the Wiener Werkstatte.

The Nazi official offered to purchase the contents of the apartment, and was outwitted by Slawa Duldig who advised that the contents had already been sold.

In Switzerland, Slawa Duldig sold the rights of the 'Flirt' umbrella to Bruder Wuster for 1,000 Reichsmarks.

In May 1939, the Slawa Duldig family arrived in Singapore as refugees.

Karl and Slawa Duldig set up an art school and Slawa Duldig found employment in art restoration.

Many members of Slawa Duldig's family had remained in wartime Europe.

On 11 October 1944, Slawa Duldig sought news of her sister Rella through the Red Cross.

In 1945, Slawa Duldig attained registration as a teacher of Art and German and was employed by Korowa Church of England Girls Grammar School.

At St Catherine's School, Slawa Duldig was acknowledged for the depth and breadth of her teaching approach, which featured first-hand knowledge of European Old Master art, craft and furniture design, and innovative approaches enabling students 'free expression' and experimental approaches.

Slawa Duldig was one of the first teachers in Victoria to offer Art as a Matriculation subject.

In June 1954, Slawa Duldig was one of 13 women to attend the UNESCO seminar, 'The Role of the Visual Arts in Education' at Melbourne University Women's College.

Slawa Duldig participated in an associated working group on 'Art in Secondary Schools,' which forwarded the recommendation that Art should be accorded equal status in the schools with all other subjects.

In Melbourne, in approximately 1945, Karl and Slawa Duldig started a hand-made pottery business.

Karl produced the ceramics and he and Slawa Duldig were involved in their decoration.

Slawa Duldig played at Wimbledon in 1962 and 1963 for the Netherlands, and competed in the Australian Open, French Championships, Fed Cup, and in the Maccabiah Games in Israel where she won two gold medals.

Slawa Duldig's granddaughter, Tania de Jong, born in 1964, is an Australian soprano, social entrepreneur, and businesswoman.

In 1965, after Tania's birth, the family returned to Melbourne, and after she gave birth to two more children Slawa Duldig found it challenging to maintain her tennis.