Art Nouveau silvered metal and glass centrepiece by WMF

This centrepiece is crafted from metal which has been silvered. Its stem takes the form of a beautiful young woman who stands on a base, set on three feet. This base is decorated with openwork serpentine patterns and flowers. The woman adopts an elegant contrapposto pose with her arms raised to her head. She wears a loosely draped, diaphanous dress and smiles while gazing off to the left. Leafy vines gracefully curve around the woman’s body and terminate in a bunch of flowers above her head. The centrepiece’s stem supports a glass bowl, which is petalled to imitate a flower. A glass column, also shaped like a flower, extends upwards from the centre of the bowl.

This piece is stamped with the maker’s mark of the prestigious metalworking factory, Württembergische Metallwarenfabrik (WMF). The WMF was founded in 1880 in Geislingen an der Steige, in south Germany. The factory was one of the leading producers of metal tableware in the late 19^th and early 20^th Century. They specialised in the creation of Jugendstil or Art Nouveau pieces, which were highly fashionable at the time.