Silver Grouse from Berthold Muller
Published 12th January 2009
The firm of Berthold Muller & Son were wholesale silversmiths trading out of Acton during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. They were sole British agents for the German company Neresheimer & Sohne of Nuremberg, they also imported sliver wares from Holland and Austria.
The last piece of German silver imported by Berthold Muller that I sold was a tea caddy modelled in the form of a cat, bearing import marks for 1905. It realised £7,000 in our July 2008 sale.
Recently two continental silver models of red grouse have wandered across my desk each about 9.5cm. tall. One grouse bears import marks for 1926 the other grouse for 1927.One also bears the import marks for Berthold Muller and was almost certainly made by Neresheimer & Sohne. Although they are a matched pair of grouse (cock and hen) they are not by the same makers and there is a years difference in their import dates.
This brace of grouse will be included in one of our forthcoming auctions.