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Description
PARIS 1819–1838
A pair of 950°/°° silver butter dishes inspired by the design of the tea service belonging to Napoleon and Marie-Louise of Austria, crafted in 1810 by Biennais. Oval in shape, they rest on four feet cast in the form of winged caryatids, with the rear interiors in gilded metal. The two ovals, which held the original crystal bowls, feature the same decoration of a frieze of posts, rosettes, oves and spearheads.
Silversmith: Jean-Charles CAHIER, admitted to the guild in 1801; his first hallmark: a Jehovah.
Hallmarked within one of the scrolls of the surrounding frieze, alongside the ‘old man’ and the hallmark of guarantee
Net weight: 1,410 g – length: 24 cm – width: 14 cm – height: 8.5 cm
As Biennais had sold his business to CAHIER in 1821, along with ‘the dies, hallmarks and manufactured goods then in the workshop’, it is entirely possible that the models present in the workshop were used to produce these butter dishes.
Source consulted and excerpt taken from: Anne DION-TENENBAUM: 19th-Century Gold and Silverwork, the Louvre Museum Collection: pages 56, 269 and 271
See original version (French)
Auto-translation. Refer to original language for legal validity.
Pictures credits: Contact the Auction House
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