Alphonse Mucha : Ivy and Laurel, c. 1901 — pair of lithographed tinplate plates

By MUCHA Alphonse (1860-1939)

Alphonse Mucha (1860-1939)
Ivy and Laurel (Lierre et Laurier), c. 1901
Lithographed tinplate, pair of circular decorative plates.
Signed Mucha within the design, lower left on each plate. Unnumbered, no stated edition.

Dimensions
Each plate: diameter 30 cm (12 in.)
Depth: 2 cm (0.8 in.)

Condition
Fair to good. Overall surface wear consistent with age and use. Rubbing and minor loss to the rims of both plates, with scattered light scratches and small abrasions across the fields. Localised oxidation and darkening, more pronounced on the ivy plate, which shows a greenish tarnish across the border. Minor denting to the outer edges. Colours remain warm and legible; both compositions fully readable.

Rarity
These tinplate chargers are extremely rare, and rarer still as a matching pair. Unlike the printed panels, which survive in quantity, the metal versions were domestic objects: hung, handled, cleaned and discarded. Very few complete pairs are recorded. Another example passed through Poster Auctions International, the house founded by Jack Rennert and the reference sale room for Mucha material, catalogued under PAI-LXXIII, lot 402.

Description
« Reminiscent of the Byzantine Heads, this is a coupling of two girls’ profiles in cameos. Since they represent leafy garden plants, they are framed in pale green decorative oblongs of rich foliage. The backgrounds behind the girls in their respective cameos feature mosaic patterns. The decorative use of foliage of this sort was characteristic of many of the designs which appeared in Mucha’s Documents Décoratifs portfolio, published at the same time. » — Rennert/Weill, p. 280

The transfer of these motifs onto decorative metal plates attests to the popularity of Mucha’s work at the turn of the century, and to the desire to possess it across multiple media. Where the original panels were conceived as paper decorations for the wall, the tinplate version brought the same imagery into the domestic interior as an object — durable, displayable, and produced for a far wider public than the printed editions. The pair belongs to the family of allegorical female figures Mucha developed from 1897 onward, in which each woman is identified with a plant and set against a mosaic ground drawn from Byzantine ornament. Laurel and ivy form a natural pendant: evergreen, emblematic, and graphically complementary in their leaf structure.

Originality
Period lithographed tinplate, produced after Mucha’s decorative panels. Not a modern reproduction. Sold with a Certificate of Authenticity issued by N.C.A.G.

Literature
Rennert/Weill, 76 (var.) — Lendl/Prague, pp. 226-227 (var.) — PAI-LXXIII, 402

Price : 3400,00 € ( 3965.00 USD )