Featured Lovely art nouveau something or the other !

Hi all. Picked this lovely thing up a few days ago,and I must say I dont think Ive ever encountered something quite so deeply tarnished ! I should have taken a before pic.its 4 1/2 by 4 1/2 and marked "800" .It had an old dealer tag on it that had no info,just a bunch of numbers.That square is what the rest should look like,but after my hands started cramping I gave up for a while. I found it in a shop I rarely venture into as they have no air conditioning in a big old warehouse ! The lady who runs it saw me looking at it and said thats not sterling but you can polish it with...wait for it...Brasso ! Shades of the DEEP ! Any input would be greatly appreciated.

 

Very nice! Could have had an interior and been once a jardinière

 

I thought maybe so. I havent found anything like it so far.But then thats no surprise since I cant find diddly squat anymore !

 

LOVE IT !!! ... Joy.

 

she reminds me of wmfb mucha jugendstil

 

TOO FUNNY!!! It's absolutely lovely. Johnny, it's become difficult to find good stuff even in my port city. Made it easier for me to back off of the hunt. I searched around in the New Orleans French Quarter this weekend for ANYTHING nice enough to buy (in between stopping at jazz clubs lol). Stuff was a reasonable price, surprisingly, but I bought only ONE item. (Surely paid too much for it, but it's a cool piece, I will try to post it another day because I could use some help on it.)

@alex webb what is that beautiful piece you've got there? I LOVE that period of Art Nouveau.

 

hello antidiem, its an art nouveau teegläser.

ps. found your candy dish

 

Wow,thank you ! So someone put a silver panel in the one I have ? The rest is tin plated ? I had no idea tin would tarnish . Why does mine not have the marks on the foot ? Im so confused now !

 

i guess britannia metal is tin. i assumed thick silver for yours. they did it all.

as = antique silver finish
B = Britannia-metal
bg = gilt base
ep = electro-plated
gg = entirely gilt
go = parcel-gilt
ig = gilt interior
I/O = Normal thickness of gilding or silver-plating
M = brass
MB = partly brass, partly Britannia metal
N NS = nickel-silver
O silver-plate deposit, 50% thicker than the normal coating
OX = oxidized
zg = fancy gilt

 

The description on the one you posted describes it as "Tin plated with glass insert".Am I mistaken in thinking WMF was mainly silver plate ?

 

silver plate. i have never seen anything like the unit with the insert. its almost an impossible looking thing.

 

Thank you for the input. The 800 stamp made me think the whole thing was solid silver,but theres not much doubt its WMF. Not the end of the world,it still seems to go for good prices .

 

where does this list come from ?

 

It is a gorgeous tea glass holder. Teegläser is the plural of the German word Teeglas, which means tea glass. The 'Teeglas' would be put in a lovely holder like yours, so your fingers don't get burnt.

 

http://www.ascasonline.org/windowfebbra105.html
http://www.ascasonline.org/windowAGOST63.html

somewhere in there or linked from those pages is the list. the list is compiled from all the descriptions.

i believe it says britannia metal is rare.

 

So interesting, thanks all!

 

Can someone explain the 800 silver stamp if the item is silver plated ? I seem to be fixated on that issue,though Ive no doubt it is WMF.

 

aah okay. this "Professor" is a complete weirdo. he made up this list after he found out that his German was soooo brilliant, that he didn't need to know the history of WMF nor the basics about different metals.
two examples only.
I/O. this was first used by the old Werkmeister and simply means "in Ordnung"; what he mentions about 1 gram per decimeter of silver is (one of the) the official German standard for flatware.

Britannia metal was not rare and is an alloy that some include into the pewter family, some don't. the big advantage is the possibility that you can polish it till it looks like silver (Oscar statuets etc.)

 

one of those... "OMG I'm so stupid" moments. [i.e., my true initial thought] substitute the 8 for the B and the B for the E and zero for the D and another zero for the O, and I got it 100% right!

 

You are right to be fixated, it says 800, which to me is a silver mark as well. WMF made silver objects, as well as non-precious and plated objects.