A fine Empire silver-gilt wine-cooler from the Nicholas Pavlovich service

MAKER'S MARK OF MARTIN-GUILLAUME BIENNAIS, PARIS, 1809-1819

Details
A fine Empire silver-gilt wine-cooler from the Nicholas Pavlovich service
Maker's mark of Martin-Guillaume Biennais, Paris, 1809-1819
The tapering cylindrical body resting on four ball feet with swans displayed above, the lower part of the body with engraved vine-leaf band between beading and guilloche bands, the upper part with grape and vine-leaf band and applied twice with crowned monogram between hippocampis and sea-bulls, the handles rising from masks of river-gods, with water-leaf border, the base stamped Biennais and with inventory number "No.2", marked on base
24.2 cm. (9½ in.) high
2,134 gr. (68 oz.)

Lot Essay

The monogram is that of Nicholas Pavlovich (1796-1855), later the Emperor Nicholas I of Russia. He was the son of the Emperor Paul (1754-1801) and his second wife Maria Feodorovna, Duchess of Wurtemberg. he married Alexandra Feodorovna, Princess Charlotte of Prussia in 1817 and succeded his brother Alexander I (1777-1825) in 1826. He was the eldesr brother of Mikhail Pavlovich and also patronised the leading Parisian goldsmiths including Biennais.
This model was one favoured by Biennais and used in the Borghese service (see A. Phillips and J. Sloane Antiquity Revisited, English and French Silver-Gilt, from the Collection of Audrey Love, London, 1997). It is interesting to note that Cahier used basically the same form for a pair in the Mikhail Pavlovitch service (see V. Brett The Sotheby's Directory of Silver, 1600-1940, London, 1986. fig. 1778. This pair were sold at Sotheby's Zurich. 18 November 1977, lot 162).
The pair to this wine-cooler was sold at Sotheby's Geneva, 14 November 1988, lot 101.

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