Item number: 59077
Eight Art Nouveau 800 grade silver cake forks #6200,
Düsseldorf circa 1904 by Peter Behrens for Franz Bahner
Decorated on both sides in understated Art Nouveau relief pattern. Excellent condition and without monogram.
14 cm / 5.51″ length; 209.7 g / 6.74 oz total weight
Peter Behrens – Artist, Industrial Designer and Teacher
Born in 1868, Peter Behrens began studying painting at the Hamburg School of Arts and Crafts in 1889, which he later continued at the Karlsruhe School of Arts. In 1890 he moved to Munich where he became a member of the Munich Secession. Later, together with Wilhelm Trübner, Thomas Theodor Heine, Lovis Corinth and Max Slevogt, he founds the “Freie Vereinigung Münchener Künstler”.
1897 Co-founder of the “Vereinigte Werkstätten für Kunst im Handwerk”, Munich, which together with the “Dresdner Werkstätten” later became the “Deutsche Werkstätten”. 1889 Peter Behrens becomes a staff member of the art magazine “PAN”, where he develops his own linear style under the influence of Henry van de Velde’s designs. In 1899 Behrens became a member of the Darmstadt Artists’ Colony, his decorative art designs became increasingly well-known. In 1901 and 1902 Peter Behrens conducted courses in Nuremberg on arts and crafts, the products of which were offered for sale in a specially established shop. In 1903 he became director of the Düsseldorf School of Arts and Crafts and a member of the artistic committee of the AEG. In 1914, he made his breakthrough as the first German designer to design AEG’s products, architecture (his turbine works for AEG are now part of the UNESCO World Cultural Heritage), workers’ recreation homes and even the logo and company paper. The typefaces “Behrens-Kursiv” and “Behrens-Antiqua” go back to him. Several state and municipal buildings, as well as monuments, other company buildings and residential houses were built after his designs. Peter Behrens died in Berlin in 1940 at the age of 72.
As a generalist, Peter Behrens managed to significantly influence the German arts and crafts with his designs.
