Around 1900, in countries neighbouring the Netherlands, there was a great deal of interest shown in elegantly designed products fashioned in Art Nouveau style. Cast pewter items were particularly popular, not least because pewter lends itself in particular to casting in the most fantastic forms and also has a sufficient degree of rigidity to be fin­ished exquisitely. It is no surprise therefore that around 1900 a large number of factories came into existence engaged in the lucrative busi­ness of producing decorative products in pewter. The dynamism of the designers and manufacturers in that era was extremely high. In Germany alone there were around 30, of which the names WMF, Orivit, Osiris and Kayser Zinn are the most well-known. In particular, a large number of skilled craftsmen could be found in the vicinity of Krefeld. The first pewter factory of its kind in the Netherlands (Maastricht) didn't come onto the scene until 1903. It went by the name of :

Urania Eerste Nederlandse fabriek van kunstvoorwerpen in metaal Maastricht (Urania / First Dutch factory of objects of art in metal / Maastricht) According to the City Records Office in Maastricht and the local address register of the time, the factory was located at the following address: Scharnderweg q, Maastricht (Amby district) The sources consulted also specify addresses at Bergerstaat 4 and Scharnderweg 4. This does not necessarily mean that the business moved, rather that the different addresses were a result of changes in street names and numbers. In addition to the factory on the Scharnderweg, the company also had a depot situated at Spilstraat 25 in Maastricht. The depot was managed by Mr H. Lodewick.

History of its origins
In view of Maastricht’s favourable position on the River Meuse, the proximity of coal for energy and the presence of 'first-rate sand', Petrus Regout founded the Sphinx factory in 1834. What's more, Petrus Regout was also responsible for attracting many other indus­tries including many ceramic companies and those working in the pro­duction of glass. As a result, a situation arose in the environs of Maastricht and in nearby Germany where an adequately large skilled and industry-minded workforce became available. As well as being a highly motivated and gifted man, Petrus Regout was a man with a large family. Many of his children became involved with other indus­tries in other ways. One of his sons was Hubert E.T. Regout, who was married to Marie M. Th. L. Kersten. They lived in Maastricht and on 26 December 1858 became parents to a son with the name, Hubert Dieudonne Frederik Regent. According to documents, at the time, both parents were without an occupation. Hubert Dieudonne Frederik Regout, grandson of Petrus Regent, became an engineer.

He married Clara Polis, who came from a distinguished French fami­ly. On 24 April 1902 he founded the Ltd. 'Kunstzinn' in Maastricht, probably due to the large amounts of money it attracted. The only part­ners mentioned were the Valkenburg doctor, Dr Emile Herman and the work's manager Karl Watzal, likewise domicile in Valkenburg. On 24 November 1903 Frederik established Ltd. `Urania' in Maastricht, the first Dutch factory manufacturing art and luxury objects in metal. The articles of association are dated 9 November 1903. The company was inaugurated for a period of approx. 30 years and the starting capital amounted to NGL (Dutch Guilders) 45,00, divided amongst go shares of NGL (Dutch Guilders) 500 each. The partners in the aforementioned Ltd. `Kunstzinn' are not mentioned in these transactions. They were either no longer partners or Frederik had been given the power of authority to take these measures. Whether they participated in any other capaci­ty in NV `Urania' is not known. There are indications that the factory operated under the name of 'Amby tin' prior to 24 November 1903. Documents show that the labour inspectorate issued them with a licence on y March 1903, although the official licence was only given in May 1904, owing to the fact that the details had not been sent off.

Factory size
Little or nothing is known about the size of the factory. In view of the product range, the ingenious designs, the processing and the finish­ing, the factory must have been of some significance. Using today's standards, we can assume the following;

Management

General manager Technical manager or operations manager Financial manager or sales manager Accounts department (2 employees) Design department made up of two highly qualified designers Modelling and moulding workshop for the manufacture of ancillary equipment (6 employees) Pewter casting workshop (3 employees) Finishing workshop for smoothing and shaping (12 employees) Soldering workshop responsible for the assembly of components (12 employees) Polishing shop (8 employees) Packaging and shipping department (2 employees) Cleaning staff (2 employees)

If we assume that this is a fairly accurate estimate, at its zenith the fac­tory would have had between 40 and 50 men and women on its pay­roll. The number of women would have been considerably small: at that time it was usual to employ women only in administrative and cleaning capacities. Relatively many boys above the age of 12 years would have worked owing to the lower wage costs involved. The assumption that the company employed a workforce of between 40 and 50 does not mean that they would all have been permanent staff employed by `Urania'. It was quite usual at the time to hire in casual labour for short periods or even for one day.

The only concrete indication of the number of employees dates from 1908, a year that was probably a difficult one for the business. A state­ment of the labour inspectorate of the same year specifies that the total number of permanent staff, excepting administrative staff, consisted of 2 adult men, 5 boys of between 12 and 16 years of age and a woman of 16 years or more. It is probable that these were local Limburg workers, but one should not rule out the possibility that skilled workers came from nearby Krefeld. Documents dating from the period after 1908 are almost non-existent. The only one that still exists is a sales invoice for machinery dating from 1910

Skilled personnel
The previous section dealt with the size of the workforce and their responsibilities, but information relating to their professional skills does not feature. Given the complex shapes of many of the `Urania' products, it is clear that they must have been made by the `lost wax process'. This age-old process can only be performed with expertise and experience. This means that there must have been a number of specialists working at Urania. Given the brilliant designs and construction of the objects, the following conclusions can be drawn:

• Urania employed highly qualified designers,
• Urania bought in its designs, as was quite common during this period,
• Urania co-operated with other pewter factories.

Whatever the actual conclusions are, the fact remains that the designs show that the designer(s) were well familiar with the characteristic styles of the period. The objects make this patently clear. In all proba­bility, the famous German designer, Friedrich Adler, also worked for Urania. There is a striking similarity between some of the `Urania' objects and objects made by this designer for Osiris, Orivit and others.

Urania objects: materials used and finishing
In the manufacture of the objects, use was made of pewter with a high antimony content (approx. 6%). As has already been said, the material must have been able to cast well in order to achieve the fantastic shapes. Furthermore, air-bubbles (or so-called casting cavities) were not allowed to develop. Tin was ideal for these purposes. A second requirement of the material was that it was hard and firm. For this reason antimony was added to the product. A high percentage of anti­mony not only ensures the required hardness, but also enables objects to be polished to a silver colour. For this reason, in Germany, the material is known as `Silber-Zinn'.

It is not known from which suppliers the raw materials were bought. It might have been Biliton in Arnhem, but a more obvious source for materials would have been Krefeld. In Krefeld, the alloy-based materi­als were already known, so that they didn't have to be especially mixed. Glass and crystal were also used in the manufacture of Urania objects. These materials were probably bought in from one of the Regent fami­ly factories. Co-operative ventures with others also took place such as with Loetz Witwe from Austria. In addition to the 'Silber-Zinn' objects already mentioned Urania also produced other objects. In the first instance these were silver and gold-plated objects. A number of tin and silver-plated brass products are also known.

Urania objects: the markets
As far as is known, Urania products were exported primarily to Germany, the United Kingdom and France. Sales in the Netherlands were never large and restricted to the southernmost provinces.

The current situation is not so different from that between 1903 and 1910. Urania is a much fancied collector's item in Germany, the United Kingdom and France and is on a par with related makes such as WMF, Orivit and Osiris. So far Urania still has to make its break­through in the Netherlands.

© Trix Kwint Kunst en Antiek

Urania Maastricht 1903-1910 First Dutch factory of objects of art in metal Jan C. G. Kwint, Pub. 2002, 124p, f/c & b/w illu. ISBN 90 74265 47 2