Anyone any ideas about these two pieces?
The larger piece is 18cms tall. Incised into the surface overlay are stems of lily flowers and buds and a bee. The stamens, the spots on the petals, the ribbing on the leaves and so on are all there. The petals are turned back as in Turk’s Cap lilies.
The smaller piece is 8cms tall, a dusky brown / red. The surface overlay is engraved (? - I’m assuming the design’s been achieved by engraving but, as a non-expert, I’m not going to swear to that) with mistletoe, sycamore keys, berries and the branch of a tree with a ball of mistletoe clinging to it.
The pieces are signed in two places: the name “Schmid” appears on the side near the bottom, and underneath is “Schmid” again, followed by interlinked initials that are difficult to decipher but look like “FJO” or “FTO”. These are followed by “CB” and another difficult to decipher pair of letters or numbers – “gN” or “9N”.
I asked Ed Schmid in the States - he said they weren't his and suggested a German / Austrian / Swiss origin?