Plaquette thumbnail 1
Not currently on display at the V&A

Plaquette

1900 (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

This plaquette was produced in 1900 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the celebrated Belgian jewellery and silverware business, Wolfers; it was also intended to honour the founder of the business, Louis Wolfers (1820-1892). It was produced by the Belgian sculptor Isidore De Rudder (1855-1943) who worked closely with the business, in particular collaborating with Philippe Wolfers, Louis Wolfers’ son. Under the artistic leadership of Philippe, the business quickly established itself as a leader of the Art Nouveau style in Belgium. The collaboration between Isidore De Rudder and Philippe Wolfers marked an important phase in the atelier’s output.

De Rudder’s plaquette for the Wolfers’ anniversary follows the form of his other medallic outputs of the early twentieth-century. The scale of the work, the Art Nouveau stylistic detail, and the inventive typographic layout also follow the form of plaquettes produced by contemporary French medallists such as Jules-Clement Chaplain (1939-1909) and Oscar Roty (1846-1911), both of whom have been regarded as being responsible for the revitalization of medallic art at the end of the nineteenth-century.


Object details

Categories
Object type
Materials and techniques
Bronze, cast
Brief description
Plaquette, two-sided, commemorating the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Wolfers atelier, bronze, by Isidore De Rudder, Brussels, 1900
Physical description
Two-sided bronze plaquette.
Dimensions
  • Height: 77mm
  • Width: 55mm
Production typeLimited edition
Credit line
Gift of Peter Kaellgren and John Alexander in honour of Philippa Glanville
Object history

Associations
Summary
This plaquette was produced in 1900 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the celebrated Belgian jewellery and silverware business, Wolfers; it was also intended to honour the founder of the business, Louis Wolfers (1820-1892). It was produced by the Belgian sculptor Isidore De Rudder (1855-1943) who worked closely with the business, in particular collaborating with Philippe Wolfers, Louis Wolfers’ son. Under the artistic leadership of Philippe, the business quickly established itself as a leader of the Art Nouveau style in Belgium. The collaboration between Isidore De Rudder and Philippe Wolfers marked an important phase in the atelier’s output.

De Rudder’s plaquette for the Wolfers’ anniversary follows the form of his other medallic outputs of the early twentieth-century. The scale of the work, the Art Nouveau stylistic detail, and the inventive typographic layout also follow the form of plaquettes produced by contemporary French medallists such as Jules-Clement Chaplain (1939-1909) and Oscar Roty (1846-1911), both of whom have been regarded as being responsible for the revitalization of medallic art at the end of the nineteenth-century.
Bibliographic reference
Collection
Accession number
A.3-2014

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Record createdAugust 16, 2013
Record URL
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