Pair Vintage Christofle Silver-Plate Radish Bud Vases | French Art Nouveau Style

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Description

A pair of Christofle silver-plate bud vases, each with a bulbous, radish-form base narrowing into a tall, fluted neck fashioned … Read more A pair of Christofle silver-plate bud vases, each with a bulbous, radish-form base narrowing into a tall, fluted neck fashioned as a sheaf of wheat and acanthus leaves, bound partway up by a wrapped, ribbon-like band and flaring to a softly ruffled rim. The sleek stem lines and botanical structure borrow directly from early 20th-century Art Nouveau design, translated here into Christofle's silver-plated hollowware.
Silver-plated pieces develop a distinctive tarnish over time — deep, iridescent tones of blue, purple, gold, and magenta that shift with the light, most visible here in the crevices of the leaf work and the folds of the radish base.
Each base carries Christofle's three-part maker's mark: the "Christofle" name stamped across the center; a square hallmark with a chess-knight motif flanked by the initials "OC" (Orfèvrerie Christofle), the house's manufacturer's mark used since 1935; and a Roman numeral "I" quality stamp, the plating-thickness standard France introduced in 1983. Together, these place manufacture sometime after 1983 — later production rather than the 19th-century balance-and-bee mark Christofle used from 1844 to 1935. Given that, these read as vintage Christofle rather than antique, made in the Art Nouveau style rather than of the Art Nouveau period.
Condition: Consistent with age and use — attractive, deeply iridescent tarnish patina throughout, with expected wear at the high points of the leaf and root detailing See less