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A silver flat-bottomed teapot, the body and hinged lid alter…
See original version (French)
259
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A silver flat-bottomed teapot, the body and hinged lid alter…
See original version (French)
Estimate €8,000 - €12,000
Voluntary lot
Description
A silver flat-bottomed teapot, the body and hinged lid alternating plain broad ribs and ribs engraved on an amatized ground with lambrequins, scrolls and foliage, the "dragon" head spout with rectangular shaped attachments and a wooden handle.
Master goldsmith: AD in an escutcheon, not listed
Hallmark of the city of Brussels, decanal letter: crowned O, circa 1730-1734
(Alterations, scratches and small knocks).
Height 17 cm; Gross weight: 543 g.
Under Austrian rule, Brussels established itself as one of the major centres of the Austrian Netherlands. High society cultivated an art of living marked by luxury and the use of precious objects, including silver tea sets, which developed in tandem with the boom in trade. By the middle of the century, no fewer than 43 silversmiths had set up their own businesses in the city, concentrated in the well-to-do districts of the Cour and Grand Sablon.
This teapot is fully in keeping with the typology of Belgian production from this period, characterised by globular or pear-shaped bodies, surfaces decorated with engraved motifs - acanthus leaves and friezes - and spouts in the shape of a "dragon", as pointed out by P. BAUDOUIN, P. COLMAN and D. GOETHALS (Orfèvrerie en Belgique / Zilver in België / Silver in Belgium, 1500-1800, 1998, p. 99). This formal vocabulary, attested as early as 1701 with a teapot bearing the Oudenaarde hallmark (J. VANWITTENBERGH, Orfèvrerie au poinçon de Bruxelles, 1979, p. 327, no. 327), is particularly evident in Bruges and Ghent: a teapot by Pieter van Sychem, Bruges, 1716-1717 (D. MARECHAL, Chefs-d'œuvre de l'orfèvrerie brugeoise, 1993, no. 296), and one by Pieter Colle, Ghent, 1722-1726, which fetched €22,824 (Hubert Deloute sale, 3 February 2025, lot 111).
For Brussels, we should mention a very similar teapot by Peeter Alio, 1727-1730, sold for €32,500 (Sotheby's Paris, 5 November 2014, lot 80), as well as two close examples by Peeter Alio the younger, 1734-1737, published by J. VANWITTENBERGH (op. cit., pp. 132-133, nos 120-121).
Expert : SC Emeric & Stephen PORTIER
See original version (French)
Auto-translation. Refer to original language for legal validity.
Pictures credits: Contact the Auction House
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