Bremen workshops for handicraft silver work
The Bremen workshops for handicraft silver work (BWKS) are a company established by Wilhelm Schulze in 1920 in Bremen-Walle for the production of silver body goods and other metalwork.
history
The chaser Wilhelm Schulze (1873-1947) from Bremen had worked after his apprenticeship at Koch & Bergfeld from 1895 to 1920 in the silverware manufacturer David-Andersen in Kristiania, Norway (now Oslo) and then returned to a manufacturing facility and branch in Bremen conduct. The following year he took over the workshop built in Gröpelinger Heerstraße 15 on his own. His one-offs and small series liked to incorporate elements of the Scandinavian silver style with its stylized organic motifs. The company received a gold medal at the 1937 World Exhibition in Paris . Although younger and smaller than the large, traditional Bremen manufacturers Wilkens & Söhne and Koch & Bergfeld, the BWKS created a supraregional and partly international sales market. After the restrictions and destruction of the Second World War and the death of the founder, his son Richard Schulze (1902–1988) rebuilt the workshops at the same location from 1947.
The fact that from the 1950s the production branch of church silver gained great importance contributed to the success. The Bundeswehr became an important client. Repairs and restorations as well as work in brass have been another field of work since then. The external designers for the company include Wolfgang Tümpel and Friedrich Marby. In 1981, Björn Schulze (* 1947) took over the management of the grandchildren.
Silver brands
The manufactory stamps its work with the brand BWKS , with older work the letters of the silver mark are still separated by dots. Since 1994 a stamp has also been used for silver, which encloses a stylized imperial crown and a horizontally lying crescent moon in the "S", silver-plated works only bear the "BWKS" stamp.
The system of the older model numbers of this manufactory is explained using the stamped No. 1289/20 as an example: 12 = candlestick; 89 = the 89th draft or sample of such; 20 = the 20th execution of this candlestick pattern.
Individual evidence
- ↑ January Lauritz Opstadt: David-Andersen . Oslo 1976, p. 59.
- ↑ W. Heyen: Chalice and pectoral cross for the church . In: FAZ, November 4, 1977.