Bronze Pin Tray by Gustav Gurschner – ‘Symbolist Reverie’

This French Art Nouveau bronze pin tray by Gustav Gurschner titled “Symbolist Reverie” depicts the face of a sleeping maiden wearing a diadem. Her long, flowing hair swirls before her relaxed, sleep-like visage to create the tray. The headpiece she wears bears a singular red stone in the center of her forehead. The woman’s dream-like state is referred to in the title as the reverie, which is the French for the phenomenon of daydreaming. The woman in reverie is a famous Art Nouveau trope, most notably produced in lithograph by Alphonse Mucha’s “Reverie,” created in 1897.