Friedrich Wilhelm Spahr
Friedrich Wilhelm Spahr (born March 31, 1900 in Esslingen am Neckar ; † officially March 31, 1945 ) was a designer and manufacturer of silver overlay on porcelain and glass (formerly known as silver lining goods ).
In simplified terms, silver overlay is the galvanic silver plating of non-conductive surfaces.
Friedrich Deusch (born 1855 in Pforzheim ) is considered to be the inventor of this technology . He began his first attempts in Berlin in 1895 and in 1901 moved to the “silver city” of Schwäbisch Gmünd . The manufacture of silver overlay was also carried out by the Deyhle brothers (founded in 1820, abandoned in 1998/99), as well as the Alfred and Manfred Veyhl silver porcelain manufactory in Plüderhausen near Schwäbisch Gmünd (founded in 1928, taken over by Deusch & Co. in 1989 ). Even the Adolf Besson KG (est. 1892 to 2010) are attributed to objects (but not saved).
Friedrich Wilhelm Spahr probably learned this craft at the Deusch company, which was also based in Schwäbisch Gmünd (metal porcelain factory Deusch & Co., founded 1912). Early work by the Deusch company and later from the Spahr company show clear parallels in terms of form and color.
On July 1, 1937, Spahr founded his own manufacture Spahr & Co. / silver lining goods factory in Schwäbisch Gmünd. It was located at Gemeindehausstrasse 6 and should have employed around 40 people from various fields (porcelain painters, electroplaters, engravers). At that time “silver porcelain and silver crystal goods with an engravable fine silver coating” were advertised.
Above all, Spahr's early works show his very own formal language in the Art Deco style. Typical is the perfect structure of relatively small and curved surfaces (e.g. vases) with completely encircling, repeating motifs (either purely abstract or with stylized, floral elements such as leaves and flowers, but also birds, dragonflies, etc.).
Most of Spahr's work was on porcelain (e.g. vases, mocha services, plates); but it was also used on glass, e.g. B. by the well-known glass designer Jean Beck from Munich (1862–1938) or silver-plated by WMF (also here mostly vases or drinking glasses). It was always Spahr & Co.'s own decor designs.
Most of the finished pieces were marked with a silver hallmark (at the beginning “Spahr 1000 10”, later “Spahr 1000”; more rarely there were stamps in black “Spahr 1000 10” on porcelain, and at the end there were transparent adhesive labels with black “Spahr Feinsilberauflage 1000/1000 "used). The thick (tangible) silver application is common to all of the companies mentioned (in contrast, for example, to Bohemian or Venetian glassware with a thin layer of silver overlay). The silver content was given as "1000" as the purest form of silver.
Friedrich Wilhelm Spahr refined mostly raw materials or stove-fired branded porcelain (e.g. Hutschenreuther , Rosenthal , Bavaria ). Not only the surface decoration with silver, but also our own colored glazes and painting were carried out. There are also numerous objects with finely engraved silver areas. All the work steps taken together were extremely time-consuming, which made the end products very expensive. Therefore, these were often offered for sale at jewelers (rarely preserved adhesive labels from jewelers attest to this). It was therefore never affordable mass-produced . Rather, they were exclusive individual pieces or small series.
The Spahr & Co. company is likely to have been temporarily closed again around four years after it was founded (in 1940). The entries in the business directory ( Stadtarchiv Schwäbisch Gmünd ) end here. Presumably, the company was classified as not of importance to the war effort. Friedrich Wilhelm Spahr was officially declared dead in 1953 (dated March 31, 1945). This suggests that he lost his life in the war. His widow Erika Spahr (née Daibler) ran the factory until 1959 after the end of the war and then sold it to the Deyhle company . In 1982 the company was finally given up.
literature
- Otto F. Götz: Jean Beck / Part 2 - WMF and Deusch . In: Collectors Journal . November 2009.
- Otto F. Götz: Beck and Poschinger . In: Collectors Journal . January 2013, p. 27 .
- Monika Boosen, Gabriele Holthuis: Departure into the modern age - silver from Schwäbisch Gmünd . Schwäbisch Gmünd 2010, ISBN 978-3-936988-17-8 .
- Carlo Burschel, Heinz Scheiffel: WMF Ikora Metall . Arnold, Stuttgart 2006, ISBN 3-89790-191-9 .
Web links
- Silver overlay on glass / Spahr and Jean Beck (PDF; 4.0 MB)
- Friedrich Deusch as the inventor of the silver overlay
- Exhibition archive / Departure into the modern age - silver from Schwäbisch Gmünd
Individual evidence
- ↑ Spahr was pronounced dead on this date in 1953.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Spahr, Friedrich Wilhelm |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German glass and porcelain designer with silver overlay |
| DATE OF BIRTH | March 31, 1900 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Esslingen am Neckar |
| DATE OF DEATH | 1945 |