Antique WMF Art Nouveau tea glass set holders by ALBIN MULLER 6 x pieces

 

I am pleased to offer this rare, beautiful WMF Tea glass holders 6 x pieces set

made in Germany by WMF company about 1900's .

They were not polished for the time I have them in my possesion and it has some nice and even old age patina.

 WMF is "WURTTEMBERGISCHE METALLWARENFABRIK

Rare and hard to find WMF model 215 6 x pieces set, desirable for every collector.

Offered for sale here only the metal holders without the glasses.

There are some letters / Initials / engraved on them.

Age:  circa 1900's

Hallmark: WMF; G; ostrich mark ; B ;  215

Size : 9 cm. High ;   6.5 cm. Diameter 

WMF (originally Würtemburgische Machin Fabrik AG), originally founded in 1853 in Geislingen an der Steige, Germany.

 In 1880 there was an amalgamation of Straub & Sohn and A Ritter & Co. and the factory became famous for domestic and art metal-ware with an appropriate change of name to Würtemburgische Metallwaren Fabrik AG.

 The well known 'ostrich' mark on this piece originates from the German word for ostrich, 'Der Strauss' after Daniel Straub, one of the founders.

 The 'G' in the mark stands for the town of Geislingen, on the River Fils and near Ulm in Baden-Württemburg. The additional hallmarks of “B” is for Britannia metal.

Marked by the ostrich and two inscriptions "WMF" and "G" (Geislingen an der Steige) in a rhombus, placed in hatched rectangle. Note the special shape of the "F" letter. The rectangle size is 3.7 x 4.2 mm (or 3.7 x 4.4 mm).  The additional marks: "B" means Britannia metal, a zinc-antimony-copper alloy which served as a base metal for silver plating, "I/O" means normal silver coating which is equivalent to 1 gram of silver per 1 dm2 of base metal surface, "OX" means oxidized finish. This mark was in use from around 1900 until about 1918.

History :

 Founded in 1880 by the merger of two existing German companies, the WURTTEMBERGISCHE METALWARENFABRIK was, around 1900, the world's largest producer and exporter of household metalware, mainly in the JUGENDSTIL style.

The company's trademark was an Ostrich.

10.000 different items were produced from the teaspoon to enormous table centrepieces and the metal used was mainly pewter with silver plating and use of glass for some items.

 Widely known by its initials, WMF, the company preferred to create its own designs and so the main proportion of the beautiful creations in Art Nouveau style are from their own Art studio which was directed from 1894 by sculptor and designer Albert Mayer.

Mayer, specialized in designs which depicted beautiful maidens & nymphs with flowing hair and graceful postures.

 Around 1900 WMF had also opened several shops in Germany and had more than 3500 workers.

In 1900 they acquired a famous Austrian metalwork company called "AK & CIE" for Albert Kohler u. Cie that produced and distributed on the Austro-Hungarian Market the WMF items under the mark "AK & Cie". That was to last until around 1914.

 

The period between 1900 and 1914 was one of further expansion for the company and in 1905 WMF acquired the ORIVIT AG an important Koln company known for its Jugendstil pewter, followed a year later by the purchase of the ORION Kunstgewerbliche Metallwarenfabrik another German metal-ware company.

 

WMF continued to use those acquired companies for their brands on their own markets producing and distributing the same objects under different brand.

Therefore, on the Antique market items marked WMF are considered at the same level of those marked "AK & Cie", "ORION" or "ORIVIT".

The war in 1914 brought WMF the immediate loss of all its export markets: the WMF's golden age was finished.

The decorative pieces of WMF are highly sought after today and are prized by collectors throughout the world.

 

Many Artists worked for WMF either on a free-lance base or as employee. Among them :

- Albert MAYER , sculptor and designer : director of the WMF Art Studio from 1894 to 1914.

- Hans PETER (1856-1945) sculptor, in 1907 he established his own metal-ware factory.

- Rudolf MEYER (1848-1916) goldsmith and sculptor

- Franz von STUCK (1863-1928) sculptor for a vase (item 3 at page 370 of 1906 WMF catalogue)

- Herman OBRIST (1862-1927) sculptor, - Hermann D RRICH (1864- ?) sculptor

- Albin MULER (1871-1941) architect for a typical jugendstil bottle stand (item 15 at page 153 of the 1906 WMF catalogue)

- Peter BEHRENS /1868-1940 /  member of the Darmstad Artist Colony, for a geometric jugenstil Waiter (item 84 at page 181 of the 1906 catalogue)

Mueller celebrated with his furniture designs international success. He was awarded the World's Fair in St. Louis 1904 ( Louisiana Purchase Exposition ) for the design and execution of a master work room (the so-called Magdeburg room ) theGrand Prix. More recognition he received there for artistic iron work (paperweights, candlesticks, etc.).

He taught himself in Magdeburg on to architects.

In 1906 he was at the Darmstadt artists' colony called in after he Joseph Maria Olbrich was death (1908) for leading architects. In 1907 he was appointed professor from 1907 to 1911 he was a teacher of art room at the Grand Ducal workshop teaching of Applied Arts . The Darmstadt artists' colony fell during the First World War on. From this period (1906-1912) are also many important designs for the Art Nouveau phase of Westerwald stoneware industry. In 1910, a design (shape and decoration) by Albin Müller in the Burgauer Porcelain Manufactory Ferdinand Selle , founded in 1901 by Ferdinand Selle , running. The panel as well as coffee and tea have been named "Professor Smith". The draft, in Burgau in Jena had successfully gone into production a year earlier was not possible in the Meissen Porcelain Manufactory was rejected. 1910, however, the draft Müller'schen adopted with great applause at the Leipzig Autumn Fair, Brussels World's Fair even won a gold medal.

Since 1917, he used the stage name "Albinmüller". After the First World War, he published many architectural publications operated, as a painter and created settlement houses.

In 1926, he was the architect of the German theater exhibition in 1927 in Magdeburg appointed. He designed the still existent Pferdetor and the observation tower Rotehornpark in Magdeburg Rotehornpark , and other non-maintained buildings. 1928 operating Müller studies sacral monuments and monumental. In 1934 he turned to landscape painting and was also active as a writer.

The cities of Magdeburg and Darmstadt named the Albinmüllerweg after him.