Model No. 992 1898 - 1908

Walter Scherf created this striking metalwork vessel, Model No. 992, sometime around the turn of the century. The piece immediately strikes you with its biomorphic form and the interplay between the textured, green-patinated body and the sleek, stylized metal framework. Scherf’s design captures the Art Nouveau spirit, where natural forms are abstracted and integrated into functional objects. The metallic structure, which cradles the vessel, does more than support. It imposes a graphic elegance, almost a cage, upon the more organic form of the body. This tension between the geometric and the organic, the crafted and the natural, is key. Notice how the stylized handle loops echo natural tendrils, yet are rendered with industrial precision. The dappled green surface evokes a sense of growth and decay, nature's processes captured in metal and glass. Scherf doesn’t just replicate nature but restructures it, offering a vision of how the organic and industrial can coexist, challenging our notions of form and function. The vessel exists as a testament to a period grappling with rapid industrialization and a yearning for the natural world.