WMFM Silver Mark: What WMF, the Ostrich and I/O Mean

WMFM is a maker's mark, not a silver standard. The first three letters are the company, Württembergische Metallwarenfabrik of Geislingen in southern Germany, and the fourth letter names the metal under the silver plating. M stands for Messing, German for brass. The same system gave WMFB for a Britannia metal base and, less often, WMFN for nickel silver (Neusilber, also sold as Alpacca).

According to the study of WMF hollow ware marks by David N. Nikogosyan published by ASCAS, these four-letter marks were used from about 1886 to about 1903, which makes WMFM one of the best dating clues on the piece. The fonts vary from serif to sans-serif and some sit in a cartouche, so a slightly different-looking WMFM is not a warning sign in itself.

WMF was formed in 1880, when Straub & Sohn of Geislingen, founded by the miller Daniel Straub with the Schweizer brothers in 1853, merged with Ritter & Co. of Esslingen (silvercollection.it).

The ASCAS study sorts WMF hollow ware marks into thirteen groups. The ones most people find are these, with approximate dates:

• About 1880 to 1886: three letters W M F, sometimes with dots, sometimes with M and F run together.
• About 1886 to 1903: four letters, WMFM, WMFB or rarely WMFN.
• About 1895 to 1903: WMF in a rectangle with EP or NS, made for British and American buyers.
• About 1903 to 1910: the running ostrich in a lozenge with WMF/G, inside a dashed rectangle. This is the Art Nouveau (Jugendstil) period, when WMF plated production flourished.
• About 1910 to 1925: the ostrich inside a partly dashed arch, the most widespread mark for the German market.
• About 1925 to 1930: Art Deco ostrich in a lozenge with no frame; its tail is round or turned up, while the Art Nouveau ostrich's tail always turns down.
• About 1930 to 1945: plain WMF in an arch, first partly dashed, then empty.

The ostrich is often said to date from 1880. The ASCAS author dates its introduction to 1903 from dated pieces and advertisements, so an ostrich mark alone means 1903 or later.

WMF struck extra marks beside the main one. They describe the finish, not the maker.

• I/O (also read as 1/0): the normal thickness of silver plating. It is a quality standard, not a weight in grams.
• O in a lozenge: a heavier deposit, about 1.5 times normal (ASCAS); silvercollection.it describes it as 50% thicker than the normal coating.
• OX: oxidised grey finish. as: antique silver finish. gg: entirely gilded. g: gilt.
• EP / NS: electroplate / nickel silver, on export pieces.
• ALPACCA, N, K: nickel silver base, nickel silver, copper (Kupfer).
• M.PL. / N.PL.: brass or nickel silver with nickel plating, on kitchenware.
• Fractions such as 1/2 or 1/4 and a number in grams: capacity in litres and, on some marks, the weight of silver deposited.

In 1892 WMF developed a plating method that put a thicker coat on the points of cutlery that wear fastest, sold as Perfect Hard Silver plating (silvercollection.it).

Pieces marked WMFM, WMFB, WMFN, the ostrich, I/O or EP are silver plate: a layer of silver over brass, Britannia metal or nickel silver. The ASCAS study and silvercollection.it both describe WMF's main production as electroplate rather than solid silver.

If a German piece is solid silver, look for the national silver mark instead. From 1 January 1888 German silver of at least 800 parts per 1,000 was marked with a crescent moon and a crown beside a fineness number such as 800, together with the maker's mark (antiquesilverhallmarks.com). No crescent and crown, no fineness number: treat it as plate. See 800 and 830 continental silver marks and EPNS for the two cases.

WMF also made other metal lines that people confuse with silver. In 1905 it took a majority holding in Orivit AG of Cologne, maker of a tin alloy called Orivit, produced until 1914; Ikora, from 1927, was a line of hand-decorated brass and nickel pieces in the Art Deco style (silvercollection.it).

We did not find a published, dated price guide for WMF silver plate, so we do not give a price range here. What the sources do support is context for comparing pieces: the ASCAS study places the peak of WMF's plated production in the Art Nouveau period, around 1900 to 1910, and every WMF piece with these marks is plate over brass, Britannia metal or nickel silver, so worn plating that shows the base metal is part of its condition. For a current figure, compare sold results for the same model number and the same mark group rather than asking prices.

Most WMF marks are under 6 mm across in the ASCAS measurements, so fill the frame with the mark under low side light, then photograph the whole piece and any small letters beside the mark. AntiqLens reads the mark and the form together; use the date groups above to check its suggestion.

Research and drafting for this page were assisted by AI and checked line by line against the sources listed below. Prices are copied from the named auction report or guide with its date; where a figure could not be confirmed we say so rather than estimate. If you find an error, tell us and we will correct it.