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Decorative place setting, 1930
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On June 27, 1930, the senior director of our company was presented with a remarkable gift – a place setting made by the renowned Bavarian porcelain factory Rosenthal in Selb.
The cup, saucer and plate are in a fascinating purple base color and decorated with gold ornaments. The designer's initials are inscribed on the base: "AM" stands for Albin Müller (1871-1941), a well-known German artist and architect. Appointed to the Darmstadt artists' colony in 1906, he also worked there as a teacher of interior design at the Grand Ducal Teaching Studio for Applied Arts.
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The plate shows a stylized coat of arms of the Merck family in the middle section: The golden inner surface shows the "chamomile man" in blue, red and yellow. The figure is surrounded by the inscription "27 June 1930. Dr. Willy Merck. For his 70th birthday".
The saucer shows a gold drawing of Willy and Mathilde Merck's home in Annastrasse, which Emanuel Seidl, one of the most important villa architects of his time, planned and built between 1896 and 1898. The property was badly damaged during the Second World War, but was one of the most impressive residential buildings in Darmstadt in the first half of the 20th century.
The cup is decorated with the silhouette of the "Chemische Fabrik E. Merck Darmstadt". Striking landmarks of the factory are the "Neue Verwaltung" (B4), the water tower or the "Pützer-Turm"; buildings that still characterize the visual appearance of the company today.
Willy Merck, the youngest son of pharmacist Georg Merck and his wife Anna, née Schenck, grew up with three siblings in Rheinstrasse in Darmstadt. After completing a commercial apprenticeship and studying chemistry, he joined the company in 1886, where he would work for over 40 years. In 1890, he married Mathilde Nothwang, the daughter of an industrialist, with whom he had three daughters. The couple were strongly committed to promoting art and culture in the ducal residence city of Darmstadt. In particular, they are well-known supporters of the artists' colony. Willy Merck died in 1932 as a "Privy Councillor of Commerce".