Item number: 59002
Art Nouveau 800 grade silver ice cream spoons “Iris” World Exhibition #2400,
Heilbronn circa 1900 by Bruckmann & Söhne
With floral decoration to both sides, the bowl gilded. Very good condition, the floral decoration showing no rubbing. One spoon with minor scratches, probably due to storage. Engraved with a contemporary monogram „D“. The offer is for six spoons, other cutlery pieces are available (see last picture).
13.3 cm / 5.23″ length; 120.9 g / 3.88 oz
Iris World Exhibition by Bruckmann & Söhne
The pattern of these ice cream spoons, simply called model 2400 by Bruckmann & Söhne and known in collector communities as the “Iris decoration” or “Iris World Exhibition”, belonged to a cutlery set designed in the classical, floral Art Nouveau style and closely resembled cutlery designs of the French Art Nouveau, namely designs by Jean E. Puiforcat, and was presented for the first time at the Paris World Exhibition in 1900. The silver cutlery was produced in an exceptionally elaborate manner and included an enormous number of different cutlery and serving pieces, which in turn were often designed differently at their handle ends. For the fish cutlery, for example, there is documented evidence of different decorative variants, such as a purely floral decoration or with fish and seaweed, as well as a variant in which a lobster forms the handle of the fish knife, an octopus the handle of the fish fork and a small lobster the handle of the crab knife. Due to its elaborate production, the Iris pattern was one of the most expensive silver cutleries from Bruckmann & Söhne and is still one of the most sought-after cutleries of the German Art Nouveau period.
