Jugendstil Cachepot (c1900-1905)

This German Jugendstil (literally ‘youth style’) cachepot, or planter, is made from thin-walled patinated brass, employing a repousseé technique to establish the exterior decorative band. It stands at 16.7cm (6.6 inches) high, with a diameter of 23.3cm (9.2 inches). It weighs just 350 grams.

This band is particularly revealing: it portrays stylised ivy leaves (Efeu) which were popular in the early Jugendstil movement. Within popular symbolism of the day, ivy represents eternity, fidelity and memory. Graphically, ivy’s long sinuous lines caught the artistic mood of the day. Jugendstil is Germany’s (and the Nordic States) art nouveau, and from inception it maintained a certain restraint in comparison to French counterparts. While softer and more overtly floral (irises, etc) in the 1890’s, by 1900 manufacture in Nuremberg and Esslingen moved towards a more structured graphic biomorphic style, as exemplified in this vessel.

Weight: One surprising feature of this object (and many of this exact period 1900-1905) is its delicate weight achieved – the walls are so light and unexpected its almost counter-intuitive: perhaps this evolution of Jugendstil (youth style) is a modern production answer to the heavy and often monumental metalwork of their craftsman forefathers.

This particular cachepot has been immaculately minded by it’s prior owner. Its sublime reflectivity in its patina of soft yellows, brighter golden hues and grey-green depths, and its deep and varying verdigris, attest to the supreme craftsmanship of its maker. The cachepot is in a beautiful, authentic state with the typical dents and normal signs of use inherent to a thin-walled item of more than a century’s age.

This object will be of interest to serious collectors of European antique brass production, and equally, it will be a wonderful functional and beautiful object in any modern or traditional interior. It is best lived with where there is a variance in light through any given day (or lit in a cabinet – looks incredible in peripheral lighting on a glass base about twice the object’s size): in both contexts it is a wonderfully subtle, rich experience.

Prefer if buyer picks it up - cash or revolut, but I can pack and post.
(This description is not an AI-generated text!)