Design and Manufacture: Georg Adam Scheid, Wien, c. 1900.
Marked: on hinge, german silver hallmark, halfmoon, crown, 800; inside marked G.A.S. and austrian hallmark silver fineness no.3 for 800/1000.
Measure: Height 3.5 in.; Width 2.4 in..

_{State: Emailwork excellent, surface in all perfectly even. Case very good, some minimal tracks of use in the surface, no dents, no silverabrasions.}

Form rectangular, athwart, round edges, hinged lid, silver, inside goldcoloured. Cover with a representation in multicoloure enamel paint, insert into the surface, cobalt blue, beige, rose, incarnate. Reverse monogram as ligature (BK?).
 
While the Austro-Hungarian Art Nouveau- and Jugendstil-silver factories combined floral and abstract motifs with a décor of elegant lines, the works of Georg Adam Scheid formed an exception, because they impressed before 1900 just by simple forms.
Before the founding of the Wiener Werkstatte from his workshop arose different enamelled objects according to designs by Koloman Moser and Josef Hoffmann. These artists brought for the first time unadorned designs to a generation, which is used to live in houses filled with “bric-à-brac”. Around 1900 they focused exclusively on quality works and time by time this captivating nature disappeared under the influence of the Wiener Werkstätte (Vienna workshop, founded 1903).

The reflecting, even surface of the tabatiere presents impressively the artistic meticolous tooled figure of a young lady in a sailor dress with slightly sloping head and stick. 
The sailor suit or sailor dress anticipate exemplarily, what modern artists pursued, that is manufacturing good drafts for items of daily use, which are payable for a broad audience. Only very few industrial manufactured durable goods had already succeeded with this aims – the best example is the bentwood chair of Michael Thonet. The „Costume à la matelot“ or „skeleton suit“, that Wilhelm Bleye democratizes from 1890s on in a second fashion fad, was also ascended to a classicist - “free of status”.

Cp. continuing: Annelies Krekel-Aalberse: Jugendstil und Art Déco Silber, London 1989, S.199f..

Preisreferences. Quittenbaum Kunstauktionen München, 17. Auktion, Nov.19, 2000, Lot 774, S.181, Estimate: 1534,-;
Quittenbaum, Jugendstil - Art Déco Teil I und II, Oct.21, 2008, Lot 00517, 1400 Euro (1901 US$).

Viewing by appointment possible. Location Berlin/Germany.