M.H. Wilkens & Söhne German silver service

Comprising: a tea kettle on lampstand complete with detachable burner with cover and two chained pins, hardwood handles; a butter dish stand and cover with cut-glass butter dish and liner; a sauceboat with gilt interior on fixed stand; a shaped oval tray; and the following items of flatware, the terminals engraved with the initials PS: six tablespoons, six table forks, six dessert forks, six teaspoons, six ice cream spoon, six pastry forks, a soup ladle, a sauce ladle, a small serving spoon, a pickle fork, and the following with loaded silver handles and stainless steel blades: six table knives and six cheese knives

Exh. Cat. Museum für Angewandte Kunst Frankfurt, 2011, no. 217

The founder of Wilkens & Söhne of Bremen was Martin Heinrich Wilkens (1782-1869). Following his apprenticeship and a period of working in Berlin, Paris and Lyon, he returned to Bremen in 1810 to establish his own silver manufactory.

In 1828/29 Wilkens introduced his three sons, Diedrich, Carl and F.W., to the business where they learnt all aspects of the trade, from drawing, modelling and engraving to the working and technical aspects of the factory. This was a period of rapid expansion, attracting new buyers at home and abroad, and improving manufacturing techniques, with die-stamping machinery and other innovations. Wilkens not only devised special processes but sold them as complete operating systems to other manufacturing silversmiths.

The present service was originally owned by Paul Schulte, a royal notary and lawyer. It was purchased in the early 1920s from Jensen, the old-established Lippstadt retail jeweller and silversmith, whose retailer’s mark (^CJ^L) is stuck on a number of pieces.