Lot no. 28
IMPORTANT silver TERRINE in oval form, standing on a plain moulded pedestal. The body is embossed and chased with a branch of flowers and foliage running around it. The double scrolled handles are attached to the body by rocailles. The doucine lid is edged with fillets and a small branch of chased flowers and leaves. The stylized pomegranate handle rests on a base of cut, wavy and chased leaves. The interior is in vermeil.
Master-gilder: Georg Carl BRENNER (1754-1814)
CELLE, circa 1770
Height: 23.3 cm
Length : 36,4 cm
Weight: 1840 g
(small dents in the lid)
Provenance: ADER-PICARD-TAJAN sale, Antique and modern jewellery, showcase objects, Antique and modern silverware, Experts Messrs BOUTEMY and DECHAUD, DROUOT Rive Gauche, room 6, 14 March 1977, lot 101 (ill. pl. VI).
History: The catalogue of the sale on 14 March 1977 states: "According to family tradition, this tureen was given by Goethe to Charlotte Buff on her wedding day in 1773. Charlotte Buff is known to have been the heroine of Goethe's novel The Sufferings of Young Werther.
In an article published in Le Figaro on 1 March 1977, Yves DETAN recounts the destiny of this object, which is closely linked to one of the most famous platonic love stories in history. Goethe is said to have given this terrine to Charlotte Buff, the "heroine" of his "Werther", when she married Jean-Chrétien Kestner on 14 April 1773. Charlotte Kestner had eleven children. On her death in
1828, the terrine probably passed to Auguste Kestner, an art historian and collector, archaeologist and diplomat who lived in Rome. He was a friend of Goethe's son, Auguste Goethe. He took Goethe in and saw him die at home of a fever. In Rome, in the small Protestant cemetery of Caius Cestius, the tombs of the two friends - Charlotte's son and Goethe's son - are next to each other. According to the journalist of the time, we can follow the story of this terrine. It passed to the third son of the heroine of "Werther", who founded a chemical products factory in Alsace; then to his grandson, who developed his father's factory in Thann in the Haut-Rhin. Then to his great-grandchildren, Céline and Auguste Scheurer-Kestner. The latter became Vice-President of the French Senate. Convinced of Captain Dreyfus's innocence, he initiated a review of the trial. Two generations later, the terrine was auctioned off at Drouot Rive Gauche.
Charlotte Buff was born on 11 January 1753 in Wetzlar, a Free City of the Holy Roman Empire, near Frankfurt am Main and Marburg.
In 1772, the 23-year-old Goethe arrived in Wetzlar, where the Imperial Court was then sitting, to study law at his father's request. He first made the acquaintance of Jean-Chrétien Kestner, secretary to the legation of the Electorate of Hanover, who had just become engaged to Charlotte Buff, and who introduced him to the German House, headquarters of the Teutonic Order. Goethe first saw Charlotte at a country ball in Volpertshausen on 9 June 1772, and was immediately struck by her simple, natural grace. He painted a portrait of the 19-year-old girl in the twelfth book of Vérité et Poésie: "She was one of those women who, without inspiring violent passions, are made to hold everyone under their spell. A slight waist, elegant forms, a beautiful and pure health, and the joyful activity that comes with it; the easy fulfilment of daily duties; all these gifts were shared. Kestner and Charlotte married on 14 April the following year, and settled in Hanover, capital of the Electorate of Hanover (whose sovereign was also King of England). Kestner died on 24 May 1800.
Hanover was occupied by French troops in 1803, and Charlotte Kestner sought temporary refuge in Wetzlar. In 1816, she came to spend a few days with her sister, who was married in Weimar, and on this occasion she saw Goethe for the last time. Her papers and those of her husband are in the hands of their grandson, George Kestner, who lives in Dresden, capital of the Kingdom of Saxony. The documents relating to Goethe's stay in Wetzlar and the composition of Werther were published by Auguste Kestner, a legation counsellor like her father and resident minister at the Court of Rome. She died on 16 January 1828 in Hanover1 at the age of 75. Goethe died in 1832.
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Expert | Maxime CHARRON