Klabena originally trained with the Austrian sculptor Karl Waschmann in Vienna, before moving to the German capital, where he supplied a number of models for KPM, some of them stylised bird figures with human attributes. This example has a guide of €1800.
In 1910 Klabena returned to Vienna and worked for the Wiener Werkstätte and subsequently set up his own studio in Langenzersdorf outside the city. He exhibited at major fairs at home and abroad and enjoyed considerable international success until his death in 1933.