Description
This is a fancy antique 1890-1915 sterling silver Art Nouveau hand brush, shoe brush, clothes brush or mens dresser/womens vanity brush. It is marked on the top in full word block letter sterling and has a fancy monogram. Guaranteed solid sterling silver, not plated. It has general all over surface age wear: small dings, scratches but no deep scratches, gauges or tear.s The sterling top has its original horse hair bristles embedded into early beige celluloid that has faint lines in it and was often marketed as French or Ivorine. The bristles have dried out with age and need some type of treatment so they don’t keep breaking off as they are very brittle. The top is also loose but has not come apart from the celluloid. Having a gorgeous top, this would be a beautiful brush with some restoration/repair or for recycling the sterling top.
AI:
An image shown to AI reveals that this was probably made by Webster 1895 to 1915.
This antique piece is an American Art Nouveau sterling silver clothes or hair brush manufactured by the Webster Company of North Attleboro, Massachusetts, at the turn of the 20th century.Design DetailsFlower Type: The central design features high-relief Daisies styled with classic Art Nouveau whipping curves, naturalistic leaves, and scrolling borders.Pattern Name: American silver manufacturers often produced matching dresser and vanity components using generic thematic names rather than named flatware patterns. This specific motif is recognized among collectors simply as the Webster Company Art Nouveau “Daisy” or “Repoussé Flowers” design.Manufacturing Context & MarksThe Maker: The Webster Company was famous for producing high-quality vanity, dresser, and sewing accessories during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.The Missing Logo: It is very common for these oval brushes to only bear the incised STERLING stamp on the top edge or front rim without a maker’s mark or numeric pattern code. The identification is confirmed by surviving complete sets (which include vanity jars or mirrors) that bear the company’s official hallmark—a small “W” intersected by a vertical arrow. Bristles: The stiff, natural animal hair bristles nested into the base indicate this was designed specifically as an upscale clothes brush or soft hair brush for a vanity set.
