Two Large ‘Art Nouveau’ Silverplated Pewter Vases

Description

Two Large ‘Art Nouveau’ Silverplated Pewter Vases, Designed by Albert Mayer For WMF And Supplied To Adolf Köhler & Cie, Vienna.

Each of bulbous outshape and modelled with aquatic motifs. Water cascading from the lip. The handle is modelled as a water reed held by a putto. The wave pattern body cast with frogs, leaves and conch shells, and with a figure of a water nymph.

Stamped ‘WMF / A.K. & Cie’.

Austro-German, Circa 1900.

These large vases are a celebration of the life-giving properties of water. They are modelled with water nymphs which recall the goddess Venus, who was born from the sea. She is attended by her son cupid, who is often shown alongside her in depiction’s of her birth. Water nymphs, or naiads, are a type of female spirit, which preside over fountains, wells, springs and streams. In Greek mythology, naiads oversaw the safe passage of girls to adulthood and were goddess-protectors of springs and wells, whose waters were believed to cure disease, or celebrated as fonts of poetic and prophetic inspiration.

Württembergische Metallwarenfabrik (WMF) used the Adolf Köhler & Cie (A.K. & Cie) brand for sales to the Austrian market until approximately 1914. High import tariffs prevented WMF exporting its silverware into Austro-Hungary. WMF therefore exported semi-finished blanks, which attracted a low tariff, to its affiliate, Köhler & Cie, who then silver-plated them and distributed them from Vienna throughout the Astro-Hungarian empire, Warsaw and Moscow.

‘Art Nouveau Domestic metalwork from Würtembergische Metallwarenfabrik’, The English Catalogue 1906 with an introduction by Graham Dry, Antique Collectors’ Club, England, 1998, compare the model illustrated, nr 127 and 127a, p 371

WMF was a world leader in high-quality silver-plated metalware, producing primarily small ornaments and tableware. The present vases are unusually large examples for the manufactory, suggesting that they would have numbered amongst their most expensive offerings. Albert Mayer, sculptor and designer, was director at WMF from 1884 to 1914, and responsible for the figural design of these vases in the fashionable Art Nouveau style, known as Jugendstil.