Centerpiece

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
In the middle is an example of a centerpiece

A centerpiece is a part of the sumptuous tableware that usually has a purely decorative function.

Centerpieces developed from the early modern period. The centerpiece "is a French invention of the 1690s, which was soon copied in other places." These very elaborate works, which can also consist of an ensemble of objects, were usually made of silver and were often partly gilded or decorated with enamel work . Rare and exotic materials such as ivory, nautilus casings, Seychelles nuts or adder tongues (fossilized shark teeth) were also used. In addition to their decorative function, the so-called adder sideboards were also intended to indicate whether food in the vicinity contained poison, since according to popular belief they began to sweat in the vicinity of poisonous substances.

Popular motifs were ships, fountains, fortresses or fantastic and tropical animals. In the 18th and 19th centuries, materials such as bronze and porcelain were added. In the historicism of the Wilhelminian era , centerpieces can reach a considerable size and be designed as monumental towering structures. As part of the sumptuous crockery, they often had a representative character and were often created or used for a specific occasion. An example of this would be the table decorations at the annual Schaffermahlzeit organized by the Haus Seefahrt Foundation in Bremen, where the table decorations made of small sculptures - sailing boats under full sails, rowing boats on the high seas - are made of silver. It was not until the reform movements in applied arts around 1900 that the monumental centerpiece was replaced by the jardinière , that elongated or oval flower tub that brought flowers and fresh green to the table decorations and which corresponded in particular to the preference for floral motifs of those years.

Web links

Commons : Centerpiece  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

  • Spanish porcelain centerpiece, 18th century

  • French centerpiece from the 16th century.

  • Key fields ship , around 1500

  • Centerpiece in the form of a garden, Nymphenburg porcelain, 18th century.

  • Table with centerpiece made of Nymphenburg porcelain

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ (see Lemma table top in: Hugh Honor and John Fleming: “ Lexikon Antiquitäten und Kunsthandwerk ”. 1984. Munich: CH Beck and Prestel. Digital edition: Directmedia Publishing GmbH (2002), p. 602)
  2. ↑ The large art dictionary by PW Hartmann
  3. ↑ Culture, history, traditions Eating and drinking L 'épreuve - The tasting of food and drink ( Memento of October 14, 2005 in the Internet Archive )
  4. ↑ The banquet table.
  5. ^ " Noble gift from the Baden municipalities for the grand ducal couple. Silver centerpiece for the golden wedding ” . Wolfgang Wiese. In: " Castles of Baden-Württemberg ". State gazette for Baden-Württemberg. Stuttgart 2000, ISSN  0943-5298 , pp. 14-16

literature

  • Melitta Kunze-Köllensperger: idyll in porcelain. Precious table decorations from Meissen. Seemann, Leipzig 1996, ISBN 3-363-00655-1 .
  • Barbara Lehne: South German centerpieces from the end of the 15th to the beginning of the 17th century. tuduv-Verlagsgesellschaft, Munich 1985, ISBN 3-88073-172-1 (also: Munich, University, dissertation, 1983).
  • Hildegard Wiewelhove: table fountain. Research on European dining culture. Deutscher Verlag für Kunstwissenschaft, Berlin 2002, ISBN 3-87157-114-8 .