1083 - Wilhelm Binder, fish serving set with silver handles, rocailles, and Koch & Bergfeld, fish fork

Wilhelm Binder, fish serving set with silver handles, rocailles, and Koch & Bergfeld, fish fork 800 silver and silver-coloured metal, fish serving set and fish fork. 1) Serving set by Wilhelm Binder in Schwäbisch Gmünd consisting of serving fork and fish server, handles of 800 silver, hallmarked on the handles "800" and "WTB" and with crescent and crown, blades not of silver, serving fork with four tines, pierced shoulder and engraved leaf decoration, fish server with pierced blade with engraved fish and scrollwork, handles with relief rocaille and floral decoration, probably Neo-Rococo, L. 30 cm. 2) Fish fork, 800 silver, Koch & Bergfeld, Bremen, with three tines and sculptural handle in the form of a fish, hallmarked with crescent and crown, "800" and spindle, L. 15.5 cm. Good condition commensurate with age, push-fit joint of both pieces of the serving set defective due to age, some filling compound escaping. The silverware factory Wilhelm Binder was founded in Schwäbisch Gmünd in 1868, produced bowls, trays, table and decorative silver and, among other things, cutlery, and marked its works with the company mark "WB" or "WTB". The firm worked mainly in the Art Nouveau style and later in Art Deco, exported its silverware and received awards at international exhibitions. The rocaille, the shell-like curved leading ornament of the Rococo, returned to table silver around 1900 as the Neo-Rococo of Historicism. The fish fork comes from the workshop founded in Bremen in 1829 by Gottfried Koch, which, after his brother-in-law Ludwig Bergfeld joined, became one of the major German cutlery and silverware factories as Koch & Bergfeld. A separate cutlery for fish is first mentioned in the late 18th century and came into fashion at the beginning of the 19th century, probably because early knife blades of carbon steel impaired the taste of the fish; silversmiths liked to decorate fish cutlery with water plants and sea creatures.