Important Silversmiths - Ludwig Politzer
Ludwig Politzer was one of the most important silversmiths and jewellers working in Vienna in the second half of the 19th century. Although we don’t know much about his life, we know he was born in 1841 in Szeged (Hungary); from 1866 he was in partnership with Hermann Böhm until about 1870. His artworks were exhibited at the International Exhibitions in Paris in 1878 and 1900 where he received a great popularity. He was appointed Imperial Court Jeweller. In 1907 he died in Vienna.
Politzer specialised in enamelled objects of vertu, silverpieces, nefs (silver ship models used as table ornaments) mostly in a Renaissance Revival style, also called Historismus. All of his artworks bare the maker’s mark ‘LP’.
Historismus, or Historicism, developed in the final decades of the 19th century alongside the growth of a national identity in German-speaking Central Europe.
Some of his masterpieces are nowadays displayed in the most important international museums of applied arts, such as the V&A museum in London.
