“I got it years ago from my mother-in-law,” Kathy Hecht explained to Bob DuMouchelle at a recent Trash or Treasure appraisal day at the downtown gallery and auction house. “She got it from her aunt.”
“It” in this case is a late 19th to early 20th-century porcelain plaque, explained the appraiser, who identified the piece as probably German or Austrian. “This is all hand-painted,” he explained, adding that it was done after the work of Franz Wagner, who is a famous porcelain painter. “He worked in this category,” he explained.
The piece is featured in a shadow box frame, which the appraiser said may not be original. “It may have been done because someone was trying to stabilize the back at some point,” he explained.
The piece is titled on the back with the words “Charme or Charmie,” and marked with the initials MR, which DuMouchelle said he couldn’t use to identify a maker or a particular artist.
A number of artists by the name Franz Wagner worked in Germany and Austria through the years. If you google the artist’s name and “porcelain plaque” a number of works similar to the Hechts come up, but those are signed by the artist. One, a small gilt bronze box with hand-painted porcelain plaque, “perfectly embodies the illustrious Vienna Porcelain Manufactory’s legacy,” and is listed at $2,950 on the website rauantiques.com.
DuMouchelle said similar subjects – seminude portraits of females – were popular in art and jewelry at the time as the art nouveau movement became increasingly popular “It kept selling so people kept making it,” he explained, saying art nouveau was popular roughly from the 1880s to early 1900s. Porcelain – including shadow boxes such as Hecht’s – were among the many forms of expression.
He praised the condition of the piece and its velvet lining as “wonderful” and appraised it at $400 to $600 at auction even without a clear artist attribution.
He cautioned, however, that interest in similar works has waned a bit in the market. “This is really charming,” he explained. “But this style was a lot more popular in the 1980s and 1990s when people were restoring vintage houses and looking to decorate with items like this.”
But he added that “designers are mixing traditional and contemporary antiques” again and pieces like this may again become in demand.
Hecht says she is purging and looking to sell and thinking about leaving it and some other items for DuMouchelles to auction. “I don’t want my son to be overwhelmed later,” she said, adding “we would rather sell it now.”
About this item
Item: Porcelain plaque
Owned by: Kathy and Bob Hecht
Appraised by: Bob DuMouchelle
Estimated value: $400 to $600 at auction
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Trash or Treasure: ‘Charming’ porcelain plaque example of art nouveau
Reporting by Khristi Zimmeth, Special to The Detroit News / The Detroit News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
