DEAR HELAINE AND JOE: I recently bought this dish (brass?) and just found out its manufacturer. It is marked “Ikora.” I am wondering about its monetary value.
— N.V.
DEAR N.V.: We are a little confused by this query. If you think “Ikora” is the name of the maker, you are just a tad off base, but still in the vicinity of the ballpark.
The company that made the piece is in Geislingen, Germany, which was founded by the Counts of Helfenstein. The Helfenstein castle was built about 1100, but the actual town of Geislingen was not mentioned legally until 1237.
With the arrival of the railroads around 1847, industrialization of the town began. And in 1853, Daniel Straub, who was a miller by trade, founded an enterprise that made silver-plated tableware. The base metal was copper. Initially the company was named Straub and Schweizer.
Over the years, the name of the company changed, but in 1880 a merger with Ritter and Co. of Esslingen saw the name changed to Wurttenbembergische Metallwarenfabrik. This is far too much of a mouthful for most non-German speakers, so collectors generally refer to the company as just “WMF.”
The enterprise is still in business. Over the years it has made a wide variety of wares — some artistic and high end, others more workaday and utilitarian. In 1925, the company established the Contemporary Decorative Products Department, and among the products developed was something they called “Ikora,” which initially seems to have been a surface treatment on silver plate and other metal wares (including brass).
The technique used layers of coatings that were partially induced by chemicals and partially by heat. The goal was to make the metal surface look handcrafted. It also allowed the company to add decorative flourishes. The coating can be attractive, but overuse and overcleaning could make the Ikora surface rather unsightly.
The term “Ikora” became a trade name for WMF, and it can be found applied to glass items as well to a myriad of metal wares. WMF started making glass in 1883 as an adjunct to its metal production. The glass factory was destroyed during World War I, but rebuilt and reopened in 1926. Glass production ceased in 1984.
The piece in today’s question is a typical WMF silver-plated item with elaborately pierced edges. But it has a serious problem. The surface in the center and around the edges appears to be damaged, and this will turn most collectors completely off.
The most desirable WMF examples are in the so-called Art Deco/Art Moderne style or have elaborate surface decorations such as animals, dancing girls, trees or flowers. With its damage, the dish belonging to N.V. would be hard to turn into money, and has a value of less than $25.
Helaine Fendelman and Joe Rosson have written a number of books on antiques. If you have an item you’d like to know more about, contact them at Joe Rosson, 2504 Seymour Ave., Knoxville, Tenn. 37917, or email them at treasures@knology.net . If you’d like your question to be considered for this column, please include a high-resolution photo of the item.