7/24/2020 Marks of European Silver Plate: VI.

Marks of European Silver Plate: VI. WMF Württembergische Metallwarenfabrik , Germany: an article on ASCAS: Association of Small Collectors of Antique Silver website

ASSOCIATION OF SMALL COLLECTORS OF ANTIQUE SILVER

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by Prof. David N. Nikogosyan, University College Cork, Cork, Ireland

(click on photos to enlarge image)

MARKS OF EUROPEAN SILVER PLATE:

VI. WÜRTTEMBERGISCHE METALLWARENFABRIK (WMF)
GERMANY
Being in Budapest in 2003, I was amazed by the beauty of its Art Nouveau buildings in the local "Secession" style. After visiting one of such buildings on Ulloi street, 33-37, housing the Museum of Applied Arts, I dropped into a small antique shop, situated nearby, and "fell in love"
with a gorgeous Art Nouveau item, a silver-plated teapot with a black Ebony handle. This item cost about 120 $, and I had not enough money with me. So, I was forced to return back to my hotel (situated on the hills on the opposite bank of the Danube), and then again back to the
shop for my purchase, which turned out to be my first WMF item.
WMF is the abbreviation for Württembergische Metallwarenfabrik, which means Württemberg Metal Factory and was created in 1880 in the small town of Geislingen on the river Steige (Geislingen an der Steige), after the succesful merger of two smaller silver plate foundries. This
company is still active nowadays. The WMF history is very well documented (see the references below), and I am not going to repeat it here.

A teapot made by WMF between 1910 and 1918

This firm has an unbeatable reputation as a pioneer in silver plate production of Art Nouveau items. The famous Antiques Price Guide of Judith Miller (published annually by Dorling Kindersley Ltd.) gives two whole pages for the description of WMF metal ware Art Nouveau products.
In this catalogue no other European firm, active in this area in the beginning of XX century, is mentioned, neither Christofle, nor Arthur Krupp Berndorf, nor Wellner. The auction prices for WMF pieces are also rather high. At the same time the silver coating on WMF items is usually of
much lower quality than that on the products of the above-named firms. This could be explained by the history of this foundry. Carl Haegele, head of a small enterprise which was a predecessor to WMF, produced his first electro-plated items rather late, in 1871. On the contrary,
Charles Christofle, already had in 1844 a similar technology in operation. It should be also emphasized that WMF factory made a lot of experiments with different base metals for silverplating, which often turned out to be worse than common Alpacca.

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7/24/2020 Marks of European Silver Plate: VI. WMF Württembergische Metallwarenfabrik , Germany: an article on ASCAS: Association of Small Collectors of Antique Silver website

Some WMF items from my collection: first row (left) a milk can, (right) a sugar bowl;
second row (left) a tea-glass holder, (right) a sweet-dish with a glass inset;
third row (left) a creamer, (right) a 1922 coffee-pot with the inscription "Mitropa"

I have in my collection twenty silver-plated WMF items with different marks. Below, I am presenting these marks, used in the XIX-XX centuries. Though many WMF silver plate marks were described earlier (in the references given below), I was lucky to find some marks, which to the
best of my knowledge were never mentioned before.

WMF hollowware marks

N° MARK COMMENT

1 Marked by the inscription "WMF" (or "W.M.F."), placed in a cartouche (sometimes a simplified lettering was
used without cartouche). Note the special shape of the "F" letter. The length of "WMF" (or "W.M.F.") inscription
is 4.6 - 5.8 mm, the ratio of the inscription length to its' height is 3.8.
The additional marks: "EP" means "electro-plated", "NS" means Neusilber (Alpacca) which is an indication of 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, "as" means "antique finish".
Sometimes the inscription "WMF" is fused with the additional "B" mark that means Britannia metal base (rare),
or with the "M" mark that means brass base (even more rare) and after that the whole inscription looks as
"WMFB" or "WMFM" (photos from the Internet).
One of the earliest WMF marks, used from 1880 until around 1918. Though quite common, it was never
mentioned in literature.

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7/24/2020 Marks of European Silver Plate: VI. WMF Württembergische Metallwarenfabrik , Germany: an article on ASCAS: Association of Small Collectors of Antique Silver website

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.

3 Marked by the ostrich and two inscriptions "WMF" and "G" (Geislingen an der Steige) in a rhombus, placed in
hatched arch.
Note the simplified shape of the "F" letter.
The size of the arch varies from 1.8 x 2.4 mm to 3.7 x 5.2 mm.
The mark was used from 1909 until around 1914 for the items exported to France.

Marked by the ostrich and two inscriptions "WMF" and "G" (Geislingen an der Steige) in a rhombus, placed in a
beehive with smooth round arch. Note the simplified shape of the "F" letter. The beehive size is 2.1 x 2.3 mm.
The size of the arch is 2.1 x 0.9 mm. Sometimes, the smaller version of this mark is applied, with the beehive
size down to 1.2 x 1.3 mm and the arch size down to 1.2 x 0.5 mm. The additional marks: "ALPACCA" is an
indication of 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. The mark was used from 1910 until about 1918.

5 Marked by the inscription "WMF" placed in a rectangle with indication of the production year. Note the
characteristic cuts of the letters "M" (top, right) and "F" (top, left).
The size of the rectangle is 2.0 x 2.4 mm or 2.2 x 2.4 mm.
The additional marks: "ALPACCA" or "N" (Neusilber which means the same) is an indication of a base metal for
silver plating, "20" means an amount of silver metal (in grams) used for silver plating, "1922" (or "1925") in a
cartouche means the year of production.
The mark was used from 1922 (or earlier) until 1925 (or later).
This mark was never mentioned in the literature.

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6
Marked by long inscription "WÜRTT. METALLW. FABRIK GEISLINGEN-STEIGE" and by the abbreviation "WMF"
placed in a rectangle.
The rectangle size is from 1.2 x 1.3 mm to 1.4 x 1.6 mm.
The additional mark "NS" means Neusilber (Alpacca), which is an indication of a base metal for silver plating.
This mark was used between 1918 and 1925.

7
Marked by long inscription "WÜRTT. METALLW. FABRIK GEISLINGEN-STEIGE" and by the abbreviation "WMF"
placed in a beehive with dashed round arch. The beehive size is mm 2.3 x 2.6 The size of the arch is mm 2.3 x
1.3. This mark was used from 1925 until 1935. Rare.

Marked by long inscription "WÜRTT. METALLW. FABRIK GEISLINGEN-STEIGE" and by the abbreviation "WMF"
placed in a beehive with smooth round arch.
The beehive size is from 1.4 x 1.6 mm to 2.2 x2.3 mm.
The size of the arch is from 1.4 x 0.5 mm to 2.2 x1.0 mm.
The additional marks: "NS" means Neusilber (Alpacca), that is an indication of a base metal for silver plating,
"8" means an amount of silver metal (in grams) used for silver plating.
This mark was used from 1935 until 1965.

9 Marked by long inscription "WÜRTT. METALLW. FABRIK GEISLINGEN-STEIGE" and by the abbreviation "WMF",
similar to one used in Mark No.6, but put without a rectangle.
The size of "WMF" is 2.1 x 2.3 mm.
The additional marks: "NS" means Neusilber (Alpacca), that is an indication of a base metal for silver plating,
"2" means an amount of silver metal (in grams) used for silver plating.
Note the characteristic shape of the comma in the volume designation.
This mark was used after 1965.

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LITERATURE
1. WMF, Württembergische Metallwarenfabrik: Marks - Hallmarks - History, http://www.silvercollection.it/WMF.html
2. Annette Denhardt. Das Metallwarendesign der Württembergischen Metallwarenfabrik (WMF) zwischen 1900 und 1930. Historismus – Jugendstil – Art Deco. (Lit Verlag, Münster, 1993), pp.1-231 [in German].
3. Dedo von Kerssenbrock-Krosigk and Claudia Kanowski, Modern Art of Metallwork (Berlin: Bröhan Museum, 2001), pp.352-365.
4. Art Nouveau Domestic Metalwork from Württembergische Metallwaren Fabrik, Reprint of 1906 Catalogue, Second Edition (Antique Collectors’ Club Ltd., Woodbridge, 2008), pp.1-392.

Prof. David N. Nikogosyan,

University College Cork, Cork, Ireland
- 2009 -

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