Philippe Wolfers (16 April 185813 December 1929) was a Belgian silversmith, jeweler, sculptor and designer. His mature work belongs to the

Art Nouveau Art Nouveau (; ) is an international style of art, architecture, and applied art, especially the decorative arts. The style is known by different names in different languages: in German, in Italian, in Catalan, and also known as the Modern ...

style, while in his later years his work aligned with

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...

. As a jewel designer, he was less prolific than his French contemporary

René Lalique René Jules Lalique (6 April 1860 – 1 May 1945) was a French jeweller, medallist, and glass designer known for his creations of glass art, perfume bottles, vases, jewellery, chandeliers, clocks, and automobile hood ornaments. Life Lalique's ...

. Nevertheless his "exemplaire unique" series of jewelry is among the finest jewelry created in Art Nouveau. Wolfers is also known for his sculptures, decorative objects and tableware executed in precious materials such as silver, bronze, ivory and marble. He also designed vases and objects in glass and faience.

Early life and education

Philippe Wolfers was the son of Louis Wolfers (1820–1892) who led the family firm "Wolfers frères", silversmith and court jeweler in Brussels. The young man entered the family business as an apprentice in 1875. He studied sculpture at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Brussels and with Isidore De Rudder. With his father, Philippe undertook many study trips through Europe, visiting the world exhibitions in Vienna (1873) and Paris (1889). Like many of his contemporaries, he was influenced by

Japanese art Japanese art covers a wide range of art styles and media, including ancient pottery, sculpture, ink painting and calligraphy on silk and paper, ''ukiyo-e'' paintings and woodblock prints, ceramics, origami, and more recently manga and anime. It ...

Design director at "Wolfers frères"

After the death of his father in 1892, Philippe Wolfers, with his brothers Max and Robert, took over the family firm and became its design director. In this role, he introduced silverware in an

avant-garde The avant-garde (; In 'advance guard' or ' vanguard', literally 'fore-guard') is a person or work that is experimental, radical, or unorthodox with respect to art, culture, or society.John Picchione, The New Avant-garde in Italy: Theoretical ...

style, such as the ''Orchidées'' ("Orchids") fruit bowl from 1894 and one of his vases from around 1896 exhibited at the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. File:Philippe_wolfers,_fruttiera_orchidee,_1894.jpg, ''Orchidées'' ("Orchids") fruit bowl, silver (1894) File:Philippe Wolfers-vase orchidée.jpg, ''Orchidée'' ("Orchid") flower pot, glazed earthenware (1897)

Wolfers' "exemplaires uniques"

Between 1898 and 1907, Wolfers produced some 130 unique pieces of jewelry. Each piece was inscribed with the words EX.UNIQUE (for "exemplaire unique") and his initials. They were intended to show the artist's craftsmanship and were submitted to important national and international exhibitions. These unique jewels were already extremely expensive at the time. Pieces that remained unsold were disassembled after some time and the precious metals and gemstones were reused to make new pieces of jewelry. This makes this type of exclusive jewelry extremely rare today. Only about 20 pieces still exist. One of his "ex. unique" brooches sold for over £23,000 at a

Bonhams Bonhams is a privately owned international auction house and one of the world's oldest and largest auctioneers of fine art and antiques. It was formed by the merger in November 2001 of Bonhams & Brooks and Phillips Son & Neale. This brought to ...

auction in 2012. The ''Glycines'' choker which he created for the Paris World's Fair in 1900 was sold at Christie's Geneva in 2016 for 257,000 CHF. File:Philippe Wolfers, Plumes de Paon, KMKG-MRAH.jpg, ''Plumes de Paon'' ("Peacock Feathers"), belt buckle by Wolfers (1898) File:Philippe Wolfers, Oiseaux et Iris (1899) 02.jpg, ''Oiseaux et Iris'' ("Birds and Iris") decorative hair comb (1899) File:Philippe Wolfers for Wolfers Frères - Swan pendant - 1901 - KMKG.jpg, Swan pendant (1901) File:Philippe Wolfers - Libelle (1902).jpg, ''Libelle'' ("Dragonfly"), pendant made of gold,

opal Opal is a hydrated amorphous form of silica (SiO2·''n''H2O); its water content may range from 3 to 21% by weight, but is usually between 6 and 10%. Due to its amorphous property, it is classified as a mineraloid, unlike crystalline forms ...

, enamel,

rubies A ruby is a pinkish red to blood-red colored gemstone, a variety of the mineral corundum ( aluminium oxide). Ruby is one of the most popular traditional jewelry gems and is very durable. Other varieties of gem-quality corundum are called sap ...

and diamonds (1902) File:Philippe Wolfers, Niké (1902), KMKG-MRAH.jpg, ''Niké'' brooch (1902)

Honours

* 1923 : commander in the Order of the Crown.

Royal order In Belgium, a Royal Decree (RD) or Royal Order () (Dutch), Arrêté Royal (French), or Königlicher Erlass (German) is a federal governmental decree exercising legislation, or powers the legislature has delegated to the King as secondary legisla ...

of 21 July 1923.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wolfers, Philippe 1858 births 1929 deaths Belgian silversmiths Belgian jewellers Commanders of the Order of the Crown (Belgium) Art Nouveau designers