A Norwegian gilded silver, plique-à-jour & guilloché enamel open salt, David-Andersen, Oslo, circa 1897-1900. The circular bowl decorated with translucent green enamel over an engine-turned ground & encircled by a border of plique-à-jour lavender & violet five-petal flowers with yellow centers, the bowl raised on three gilded silver ball feet. Struck on the underside with the David-Andersen mark as retailer & 925 silver standard. Dimensions: H. 1 1/8 x Dia. 3 7/8 in. (2.9 x 9.8 cm).
Designer Gustav Gaudernack (1865-1914), born inBinsdorf, Bohemia (now in the Czech Republic), completed his studies at the prestigious Kunstgewerbeschule in Vienna in 1891. Having been trained primarily as a designer for ceramics, he moved to Oslo in 1891 to take a position at Christiania Glasmagasin as a designer of fine glassware. Shortly thereafter, in 1892, he was hired by the firm of David-Andersen. His designs were awarded medals at the 1900 Exposition internationale in Paris & the 1904 St. Louis World Exposition & are now held in numerous public & private collections in the United States & European. The original design for this salt is reproduced inJan-Lauritz Opstad & Rolf Gaudernack, Gustav Gaudernack: En europeer i norsk jugend. Oslo: Kunstindustrimuseet, 1979, no. 72, p. 52.