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Art Deco German silver plate fruit squeezer/press shaped as a bird

This wonderfully quirky object is German, made in the 1930s and is silver plated. It is in the shape of a bird with a rounded bottom. There is a curved lever that is hinged to the head of the bird and lifts up to enable fruit to be placed into the squeezer. The lever is then pressed down into the body of the bird which squeezes the juice out into the beak from which it then pours. There are two oval slits in the top of the lever underneath the hinge presumably for pips/pith/pulp. The outside of the squeezer is decorated to simulate feathers & wings and the eyes which are the ends of the lever hinges have been gilded. The lever is signed "Mussbach" above a cartouche shaped as a bunch of grapes with an "M" inside and the initials "D.R.P.". A lovely tactile but useful object.

I have always assumed this object was a lemon squeezer having had a similar one before that had a strainer in the beak but did not have the slits in the lever. (see the Sold section on the website). Mussbach is a wine growing town in southern Germany and presumably this was a souvenir from there and may therefore be for squeezing grapes or a wine related item.

Approximate dimensions:
Weight: 2 5/8ozs - 74gms
Height: 1.7ins - 4.3cms
Length: 4.57ins - 11.6cms
Width: 0.94ins - 2.4cms

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