WMF Champagne bucket silver-plate

WMF stands for the full name , the  Wurttembergische Metallwarenfabrik. a German company that was the most important exporter of household decorative silver table ware during  the early part of the 20th Century. WMF pieces cannot be attributed to an individual designer as the company was quite large and employed many artists during their Jugendstil period, however the  era of Albert Mayer, sculptor and designer and the director of the WMF Studio from 1884 until 1914 is considered the high point of its creativity.  In 1900 WMF acquired Albert Koheler’s famous Austrian metalwork company AK& Cie who produced and distributed WMF items under their mark to the Austrian-Hungarian market until 1914.