Oswald Haußner came from a family of Nuremberg goldsmiths. He is recorded as a silversmith starting in 1608 but did not attain master craftsman status as a goldsmith until 1637, after the death of his father, Michael Haußner. Few works can be identified as by Oswald Haußner and what survives suggests that he specialized in cups and salt cellars shaped like scallop shells. Examples of this type are held at the State Hermitage in St. Petersburg, the Germanic National Museum in Nuremberg, and the Museum für Angewandte Kunst in Vienna.