Description
c1900 WMF Vaseline Opalescent Glass Art Nouveau Centerpiece. No cracks, chips,
or restorations, some oxidation to metal stand which I'm assuming is
silverplate. I will remove the bowl from the base for shipping. 10.75" tall 10
5/8" wide bowl.
In 1853, Daniel Straub, a miller from Geislingen, joined forces with the
Schweizer Brothers to form the "Metallwarenfabrik Straub & Schweizer" in
Geislingen. This was the second company to be founded by Straub - previously in
1850, from the nucleus of a small repair workshop, which he had set up to work
on the construction of Geislingen's famous railway incline, he had founded the
Maschinenfabrik Geislingen. This company was involved mainly in manufacturing
mill turbines and traded throughout Europe.
As early as 1862, the young company distinguished itself by winning a gold medal
at the World Exhibition in London. In 1866, following the departure of the
brothers Louis and Friedrich Schweizer, the company was renamed Straub & Sohn"
(Straub & Son). The company showroom, built in 1868 in Berlin, gradually evolved
to become the company's first retail outlet. Three years later, the company was
already employing 60 workers. By 1880, the number of employees had grown to
approximately 200 and the company was already producing 960 different items.
1880 saw the merger between Straub & Sohn and "Ritter & Co.", Esslingen, to form
a public limited company under the name of Wurttembergische Metallwarenfabrik.
At the time of the merger, Ritter & Co.'s Esslingen factory was already using
the electroplating method of silver plating and had the more modern production
facilities at its disposal. Straub's company, on the other hand, was the more
profitable of the two.
