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Table and silverware

The housewife under fifty much likes the similarly-named ménagère (canteen of cutlery). But table- and silverware auctions feature fine antique cutlery sets in silver or vermeil, containing table forks and knives, coffee and dessert spoons, sugar tongs and pie servers, meticulously presented in a fine box.traditional silverware with shell or filet patterns and remarkable pieces by silversmiths in the rocaille (odiot) or art deco styles (puiforcat, christofle, etc.) Feature in these online auctions, with dinner services in porcelain (sèvres, meissen, limoges) or earthenware (moustiers, gien, nevers), which include dinner, soup and dessert plates, tureens and sauce boats.
Not to mention "top-glass" sets of glasses and carafes in baccarat, saint-louis and daum crystal, which rival with ornamental pieces for presenting and serving sweet substances: ewers, sweet jars, sugar dredgers, jam pot, and the like.
Did you know ?
One ornamental piece that still exists today is the champagne bucket: an item that regularly appears in drouot auctions.

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A GIUSTINIANI RED WARE PART DESSERT SERVICE NAPLES, CIRCA 1830 - A GIUSTINIANI RED WARE PART DESSERT SERVICE NAPLES, CIRCA 1830 Painted in the Attic manner with Etruscan subjects, comprising; ten dessert plates, 24.5cm diameter, two low kylix comports, 8.5cm x 25cm and two larger, 11cm & 11.5cm x 27cm, all with a Vitruvian scroll inner border save the larger of the four comports, impressed script Giustiniani marksNicola Giustiniani established the works in Naples in 1760, originally producing cream-coloured earthenware and prospered into the 19th century, eventually closing about 1885. It was helped in part by the closure of the royal porcelain works in Naples in 1821. With the discovery of the buried ruins of the towns of Pompeii and Herculaneum and the historical artefacts uncovered there which went on to influence art movements throughout Europe, Naples was therefore very much on the Grand Tour circuit. Wealthy tourists from Northern Europe would wish to buy souvenirs, Antique copies and associated items and the Giustiniani works were just one of many factories reproducing bronzes, ceramics, glass etc. after the Antique and this can clearly be seen here in the decoration of these plates.Examples of the works of Giustiniani can be seen at the Palace of Caserta, built for Charles VII of Naples and completed by Ferdinand IV of Naples. For those interested, a visit to the Reggia at Caserta, a world heritage site, would justify a visit to Naples on its own merits even without the other rich historical wonders on offer in Naples and its environs.

Estim. 6,000 - 8,000 GBP

RARE PETITE CUILLÈRE EN ARGENT AUX ARMES DE L’EMPEREUR NAPOLÉON IER PAR BIENNAIS PROVENANT DU PILLAGE DE LA BERLINE - Filet coffee spoon, silver 1st title (950 thousandths), the handle stamped with the large arms of Emperor Napoleon I. Paris, 1809-1819. 2nd cock title mark and Minerve head guarantee mark. Goldsmith's hallmark of Martin-Guillaume BIENNAIS (1764-1843). Austrian General Control Mark, Saint Polten, 1810-1822. L. 14.2 cm. Weight: 30.5 g. Provenance - Napoleon I's dinner service. - Taken during the looting of the Emperor's sedan on the evening of June 18, 1815. - Private collection, Paris. Exhibition Napoleon's sedan, the mystery of the spoils of Waterloo. Musée de la Légion d'Honneur, March 7 to July 8, 2012, p. 261 (illustrated). History Martin Guillaume Biennais is considered one of France's greatest silversmiths. Under the Empire, he was the goldsmith of the imperial court and, above all, the official goldsmith of Emperor Napoleon I. In 1802, he obtained exclusive rights to supply the Emperor's table. He produced a vermeil service and a silver service, which were completed in 1810 and 1811. All pieces received an inventory number engraved by Biennais in September 1812, so our unnumbered spoon is later than this date. Coffee spoons from the surviving silver service are extremely rare, as we know that all the silver remaining in France was melted down in the 19th century, notably by Napoleon III. Thus, the remaining silverware can only have come from St. Helena or from the looting of the sedan at Waterloo (see Exhibition catalog, La berline de Napoléon, le mystère du butin de Waterloo. Musée de la Légion d'Honneur, March 7 to July 8, 2012, article by Anne Dion, p. 259). Our spoon, bearing the famous Austrian General de Saint Polten control mark, therefore comes from the looting of the sedan on the evening of June 18, 1815 (all the silver taken from the sedan was later re-punched). The Emperor, caught in the traffic jam caused by the rout, had to leave his sedan in a hurry, leaving behind his bicorne and numerous personal effects, including his silverware. Prussian troops led by Blücher looted the sedan and shared the spoils. An inventory by Louis XVIII's Intendant des Dépenses, Forestier, shows that the losses of "silverware that fell to the Allies in June 1815" were enormous, and included "33 teaspoons", making them rare compared with "104 knives" and "99 pieces of cutlery". Our spoon is thus one of the thirty-three looted at Waterloo in June 1815. Related works - An Emperor's cutlery set with a knife from the Berline, Millon sale, May 26, 2023, lot 141 (sold for €62,400). - A cutlery from the looting of the Berline, sold at Kâ-Mondo, June 24, 2015, lot 147 (sold for €31,000). - A spoon from the Emperor's service, in a case, with autograph label signed by Joseph Bonaparte, brother of the Emperor "Tiré du nécessaire de l'Empereur: donné par moi, à mon neveu François Clary. 1839". Sale April 24, 2011, Maître Bailleul (Bayeux). - A set of five table spoons, five table forks, three teaspoons and six table knives, sold at Christie's, Paris, December 19, 2007, lot 173 (sold for €162,000).

Estim. 4,000 - 6,000 EUR

SÈVRES - Pair of Boizot porcelain bowl trays, agate blue background, decorated on the border with a frieze of gold palmettes and in the center with a rosette with palmettes, edged with gold fillets. Small chips. Manufacture royale de Sèvres, 1838. Marks in blue with King Louis-Philippe's cipher dated 1838, marks in red "Château de St Cloud", gilder's marks Moyez. H. 4.5 x D. 23 cm. Provenance Service of King Louis-Philippe at the Château de Saint-Cloud. History Louis-Philippe's first order for one of his residences came relatively early: in April and June 1832, the Sèvres manufactory was asked to supply a 1036-piece service (including 300 dinner plates) for the Château de Saint-Cloud, despite the King's lack of interest in this residence. The choice of this palace is certainly explained by the fact that it had strangely lacked a service worthy of the royal table since Louis XVI's miniature, mozaic service. Indeed, Josephine took the brown-red service with flowers from Malmaison after Redouté (1805), Cardinal Fesch received the lapis-blue service with heads imitating the cameo initially intended for Saint-Cloud (1808) and Compiègne recovered the gold service with garlands of flowers initially intended for the Clodaldian residence (1809). This was the beginning of the interconnections between Compiègne and Saint-Cloud, as Louis-Philippe decided to deliver the same service with an agate-blue background, a frieze of palmettes printed in gold, and a rosette in the middle of the pieces likely to be used at Compiègne, as early as January 1833 (2218 pieces). Under the Restoration, the "capraire" service was used in both residences. This similar choice obliged the Maison du Roi, in a letter dated January 31, 1833, to ask the Manufacture to differentiate the destination of each piece by means of an "inscription underneath", which would in fact be a red stamp on the reverse, alongside the Manufacture's usual manufacturing and decorative marks. This decision, which was unique in the history of royal services in France, was applied to all of King Louis-Philippe's table services, with the exception of the Bals service and only the dessert services (ordered by the King as such, although all the royal table services were in fact starter and dessert services).

Estim. 400 - 600 EUR