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a silver coffee pot with a handle on a white backgroundan antique silver plated coffee pot with a handle and handlesan image of a silver vase with a handle on a white background
Premium Senequier-Crozet (Anciennement Sadde Grenoble)

PARIS BETWEEN 1868 AND 1877: SILVERSMITH JULES WIESE (1818–1…
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Estimate €8,000 - €10,000
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Description
PARIS BETWEEN 1868 AND 1877: SILVERSMITH JULES WIESE (1818–1890) A 950°/°° silver ewer in the Louis XVI and Renaissance styles, which were highly prized in the 19th century: the base features a frieze of laurel leaves, followed by fluting on an amati ground; this motif is echoed on the spout, which ends in a drop, with a row of pearls, and on the body, where friezes and acanthus scrolls are highlighted by the motto: ‘Qui mesure dure’ in Gothic letters, arranged like a buckled belt framing the monogram AC (for Adelina de Caux). The neck of the ewer is encircled by a frieze of cascading flowers applied as an inlay; the opening of the spout is shaped like a duck’s bill. The handle, shaped like a ship’s prow, depicts a Vestal Virgin carved in the round, wearing a Neo-Renaissance pearl headdress, her tunic appearing to be pressed against her body by the oncoming winds. Her waist is marked by a gilded silver belt adorned with a turquoise stone. The hinged lid is surmounted by a pine cone resting on a bed of leaves. Hallmark: Minerva Silversmith: full signature on the reverse: WIESE Paris Weight: engraved in the English style on the reverse: ‘Weight 2K970, 1st Title Silver’ Height: 36.5 cm The monogram, comprising the initials ‘AC’ and the motto ‘Qui mesure dure’, is associated with the opera diva Adelina Patti (1843–1919), or Adelina de Caux, who, at the age of 25, on 29 July 1868, married Louis-Sébastien-Henri de Roger de Cahuzac, Marquis de Caux, seventeen years her senior. Their marriage lasted nine years, until they separated in 1877. This work is likely part of a larger commission placed with Jules WIESE, intended for Adelina’s dressing table at the time of her marriage. This is evidenced by the sumptuous gilded silver dressing mirror, in the Renaissance style, reproduced in the book devoted to Jules WIESE, in which one finds the acanthus scrolls and – as a nod – the turquoise detail on the ewer’s band, which also appears on the mirror, beneath the Diva’s monogram and motto. Now forgotten, ‘La Patti’, the international opera singer (coloratura soprano), who graced the Parisian stages from the Second Empire until the end of the century, was mentioned in 1866 by Jacques Offenbach in *La Vie Parisienne*, and in 1879 by Émile Zola in *Nana*, has no street in Paris named after her, unlike that other diva, L’Alboni (Marietta Alboni) – Passy metro station – with whom she shared the stage during a dinner at Rossini’s. Perhaps an oversight that needs rectifying? Source consulted: Silke HELLMUTH: *Jules WIESE und sein Atelier* – NICOLAI Publishers 2014 – pages 173 to 177 ‘Toilettenspiegel im Neorrenaissancestil’ Related work: Neuse Gallery, Bremen. Circa 1868, height: 57 cm – length of plinth: 41.3 cm – Sold at Sotheby’s Monaco from a private collection: Fine European Furniture and Silverware, Monaco 24 June 2000, lot 348, then Sotheby’s: Important European Silverware, Paris 10 June 2004 lot 167: Excerpts: Jacques OFFENBACH ‘La vie Parisienne’: first act of the opéra-bouffe: ‘I, for one, want to see the divas who are all the rage in the capital, to see Patti in *Don Pasquale* and Theresa in *Le Sapeur*’, Émile Zola: *Nana*: Chapter 3: ‘Have you heard Patti in *The Barber*?’ Expert Claire Badillet in Paris
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About the sale GRENOBLE – Arts Collections – October 2026
Auction location
Auction time 10/06/2026 at 6:00 PM
Pictures credits: Contact the Auction House
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