Martin Heinrich Wilkens M.H. Wilkens & Söhne, GARDINIER WITH TRITONS, 1898

30.0 x 41.0cm - pr. 880 silver Germany, Bremen, M. H. Wilkens & Söhne

sterling silver, cast, chiseled

30 x 41 x 31 cm, 3413 g

stamped on the bottom: maker's mark, 880 silver sample, model no: 125136; Russian import mark at the edge

State of preservation: small cracks at the base, missing part of the garland, missing metal insert.

This exquisitely preserved luxury item comes from the famous Bremen silver factory of M. H. Wilkens & Söhne. Before World War I, the company was one of Germany's three largest manufacturers of silverware. Its high-quality products were widely distributed throughout Germany, as well as abroad.

The jardiniera with marine motifs, decorated with full-figured flowers of water lilies and figures of tritons - half people, half fish. The body of the vessel is formed of swooning waves, on which four putti-tritons swim. Combining Neo-Rococo and Art Nouveau styles, the decorative vessel, with an extremely dynamic composition, is carefully cast and meticulously chiseled.



M.H. Wilkens & Söhne - a workshop founded by Martin Heinrich Wilkens in 1810, in Bremen, Germany. At first it specialized in silver and gold repair. The company's growth came in 1859, when the atelier received an order for cutlery for the Kingdom of Hannover; within the next 10 years, the factory received a monopoly on supplying all royal tableware. In 1917, the studio was taken over by the founder's great-grandson, who gained goldsmith's apprenticeship from an early age. Before World War I, the company was one of Germany's three largest manufacturers of silverware.