# Victor Mayer > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Victor_Mayer > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Victor_Mayer.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victor_Mayer > Source revision: 1325973514 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) {{Short description|German jewellery designer from Pforzheim}} thumb|Victor Mayer about 1895'''Victor Mayer''' (1857 in Pforzheim – 1946) founded the jewellery manufacture Victor Mayer in [Pforzheim](/source/Pforzheim) in 1890. In the time of Jugendstil / [Art Nouveau](/source/Art_Nouveau), the company created pieces based on the designs of well-known artists such as the jewellery designer Professor Georg Kleemann or [Anton Krautheimer](/source/Anton_Krautheimer) of the [Munich Secession](/source/Munich_Secession). In the art deco period and in the 1950s the manufacture focused mainly on fine gold and silver ware. From the 1970s onwards again more jewellery was manufactured. Until 1988{{Cite web |last=Systemedia |date=2020-06-09 |title=The Tradition of the Victor Mayer Manufactory |url=https://www.victor-mayer.com/en/about-us/tradition/ |access-date=2022-06-13 |language=en}} the company produced Fabergé jewelry for [Fabergé & Cie](/source/Faberg%C3%A9_%26_Cie) in Paris with the label 'Fabergé Paris'. From 1925 until 2009, the company continued to produce [Fabergé](/source/Faberg%C3%A9) jewelry under license from [Unilever](/source/Unilever) New York until the brand license was sold. The manufacture Victor Mayer is well known for its high-end jewellery and the preservation of historical artisan techniques such as authentic fire enamel or [guilloché](/source/guilloch%C3%A9). ==Life== thumb|420px|Designs of Art Nouveau jewellery and belt buckles, drawn about 1903 by Victor MayerVictor Mayer was born in 1857 into a family of thriving entrepreneurs. His father Eduard Mayer (1814–1881) owned a hostel "Zum Kreuz" in [Pforzheim](/source/Pforzheim). His grandfather Balthasar Mayer (1779–1849) owned an [apothecary](/source/apothecary) in [Haigerloch](/source/Haigerloch). And his grandfather was Meinrad Kitzinger of the County of [Hohenzollern-Haigerloch](/source/Hohenzollern-Haigerloch). Between 1872 and 1877, Victor Mayer served as an apprentice where he underwent the training to become a steel engraver. Then he became one of the first students at the Pforzheim Arts and Crafts School (Pforzheimer Kunstgewerbeschule) founded in 1877 by Grand Duke Friedrich I of [Baden](/source/Baden). After having completed his military service from 1879 until 1882, he could finally set off for a three-year stay in [Vienna](/source/Vienna), which he had planned for a long time. There he gained valuable experience in enamelling and [guilloché](/source/guilloch%C3%A9)-engraving, sophisticated techniques which are still being used at the manufacture Victor Mayer today. ==Creative Works== thumb|Design of an Art Déco powder compact, drawn in the nineteenthirties by Victor MayerVictor Mayer‘s creative works embrace four periods. He began in 1885 in the style of historicism at the Arts and Crafts School in Pforzheim, progressing towards the Jugendstil / Art Nouveau in the early 1900s, moving on to Art Deco after the First World War. With his late avant-garde designs created after 1940, he pointed the way forward to the 1950s. Documents from the company's archives show that Victor Mayer continued to make significant contributions to the manufacture's creative designs until short before his death; in 1945 at the age of 88 he designed numerous pieces of jewellery which sold very well until in the 1960s. ==Company history== thumb|Fabergé Winter-Egg, designed and manufactured in 1997 by Victor Mayer GmbH & Co. KG, Pforzheim/GermanyThe manufacture Mayer GmbH & Co. KG was founded in 1890 by Victor Mayer and Herrmann Vogel. After Herrmann Vogel had left the company in 1895, Victor Mayer continued the business alone under his name. His two oldest sons, Victor and Julius, died in [World War I](/source/World_War_I). They had been designated to take over the company management from the founder. Now two of the remaining children, Maria and Oskar Mayer, had to assume the commercial tasks in the company, while Victor Mayer was in charge of the technical management and design. Maria married Edmund Mohr, who became an individually liable partner and co-owner of the company in 1925. In 1932 Victor Mayer withdrew from operative business and handed over his shares in equal parts to his only remaining son Oskar Mayer and his son in law Edmund Mohr. Until 1965 Oskar Mayer and Edmund Mohr were equal partners and responsible co-owners of the company. In this year the two grandsons of Victor Mayer, [Herbert Mohr-Mayer](/source/Herbert_Mohr-Mayer) and his cousin Hubert Mayer, took over the management of the company. When Hubert died unexpectedly in 1989, Herbert purchased the original shares held by his cousin to become sole proprietor of the manufacture. In 1989 the company obtained the licence to manufacture Fabergé jewellery and objects of art and achieved great success with these pieces until 2009. In 2003 Herbert Mohr-Mayer left the company and his son Marcus Oliver Mohr became creative director and managing partner. Marcus was appointed a workmaster for Faberge and continues to create guilloche enamel jewellery and objects of art for Fabergé Ltd., London.{{cite web |title=Marcus Mohr |url=https://www.faberge.com/the-world-of-faberge/workmasters |publisher=Faberge |access-date=6 July 2024}} ==Fabergé exhibitions== thumb|Fabergé Gdansk or Millennium Amber Egg, designed and manufactured in 1996 In 1996 [Fabergé](/source/Faberg%C3%A9) jewellery by Victor Mayer was shown together with the works of [Peter Carl Fabergé](/source/Peter_Carl_Faberg%C3%A9) at the [Metropolitan Museum](/source/Metropolitan_Museum), New York. The collection of [Fabergé Eggs](/source/Faberg%C3%A9_Eggs) was the center piece of the Russian Pavilion at [Expo 2000](/source/Expo_2000) in [Hannover](/source/Hannover), Germany. "Faberge. A Return To Russia" was the name of an exhibition staged at the Moscow Kremlin's Armory in 2001. On display were some thirty pieces of jewelry created by Victor Mayer. The Fabergé Amber Egg is the centerpiece of the Amber Museum in Gdansk, Poland. Ewa Rachon, the Director of Amberif, ordered the egg to be created for the city of Gdansk in 1996. ==Family background== Victor Mayer belonged to the widely branched Mayer jewelry dynasty of [Haigerloch](/source/Haigerloch) and [Pforzheim](/source/Pforzheim), a lineage that can be traced back to the conversion of the [Jewish](/source/Jews) merchant Uri Kitzinger (later '''Meinrad Kizinger''') in 1754 in the County of [Hohenzollern-Haigerloch](/source/Hohenzollern-Haigerloch). Through his descendant, the apothecary Balthasar Mayer (1779–1849). In later generations, the Mayer and Mohr-Mayer families produced numerous notable figures, including: [Else Mayer](/source/Else_Mayer) (1891–1962), founder of the Catholic women's order Erlöserbund, [Dr. Herbert Mohr-Mayer](/source/Herbert_Mohr-Mayer) (born 1933), director of the Victor Mayer manufacture and [Fabergé](/source/House_of_Faberg%C3%A9) workmaster, and representatives of the international gem and watch trade such as Wolfgang Mayer and Roman Mayer ([Pforzheim](/source/Pforzheim)). This constellation makes the Mayer family one of the historically significant jewellery and watchmaking dynasties in [southern Germany](/source/southern_Germany) and [Switzerland](/source/Switzerland). ==References== * Géza von Habsburg: Fabergé Then and Now, Hirmer Verlag Munich 2005, {{ISBN|978-3-7774-2635-8}} * Herbert Mohr-Mayer: Victor Mayer (1857–1946), 'Humorous, Diligent and Socially Conscientious', Verlag Regionalkultur Ubstadt-Weiher 2007, {{ISBN|978-3-89735-527-9}} * Herbert Mohr-Mayer: Von goldenen Eiern und anderen Pretiosen. Die Geschichte des Hauses Victor Mayer von den "Goldenen Zwanzigern" bis 2003, Verlag Regionalkultur Ubstadt-Weiher 2007, {{ISBN|978-3-89735-527-9}} * Anne-Barbara Kern: Fabergé eggs by Victor Mayer, Aroldsche 2015, {{ISBN|978-3-89790-435-4}} * Tomas Maier: Bottega Veneta: When Your Own Initials Are Enough, New York, Rizzoli, 2012 == External links == * [https://www.victor-mayer.com/en/ Victor Mayer official website] * [https://www.faberge.com/victormayer Fabergé official website] * [https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3ct1tcr BBC: ''Fabergé: The iconic maker of bespoke jewellery''] {{reflist}} {{Authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Mayer, Victor}} Category:Businesspeople from Baden-Württemberg Category:Fabergé workmasters Category:1857 births Category:1946 deaths Category:People from Pforzheim Category:Art Nouveau designers Category:20th-century German designers Category:19th-century German designers --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Victor Mayer](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victor_Mayer) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victor_Mayer?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.