Item number: 58205
An Art Nouveau 800 grade silver fish cutlery “Iris” World Exhibition #2400,
Heilbronn circa 1900 by Bruckmann & Söhne
With floral decoration to both sides. The prongs and the blades showing their original gilding, the decoration is in very good condition and there´s near no wear. The cutlery is not monogrammed and always has been.
Length: (forks) 18.3 cm / 7.20″, (knives) 21.9 cm / 8.62″ ; 671.9 g / 21.6 oz total weight
Silver flatware „Iris“ World Exhibition #2400 by Bruckmann & Söhne
The decoration of this fish cutlery, simply called model 2400 by Bruckmann & Söhne and known in collector communities as the “Iris” pattern 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 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 (like here) or with fishes 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 (see an example for this pattern here). Due to its elaborate production, the Iris pattern was one of the most expensive silver cutleries by Bruckmann & Söhne and is still one of the most sought-after cutlery of the German Art Nouveau period.
