AN IMPORTANT FRENCH SILVER-GILT CONFITURIER

Details

AN IMPORTANT FRENCH SILVER-GILT CONFITURIER
PARIS, CIRCA 1810, MAKER'S MARKS OF MARTIN-GUILLAUME BIENNAIS AND JEAN-CHARLES CAHIER

On circular base with guilloche and leaf moldings, mounted with three winged lions and twelve plumed spoon-holders, centering a leaf-clad baluster support holding a vase-form bowl formed of bound waterleaves curling at the rim and with a band of paterae, the domed circular cover cahsed with a band of stylized foliage surmounted by a finial formed as a hound sejant set onto a calyx of anthemia, the spoon slats with spoons, 1819-1838, maker's mark of Jean-Baptiste-Denis Landry, chased with stylized foliage and grapes, the cover engraved with a coat of arms within drapery mantling, marked on base central section, bowl and cover, the bowl struck with Biennais's maker's mark, the rest struck with Cahier's maker's mark, the base and cover stamped C.CAHIER, also struck with post 1838 control marks;--11 3/4 in. (29.8 cm.) high
(119 oz.)

Provenance

Christie's Geneva, November 14, 1989, lot 93.

Lot Essay

The arms are those of Borghese for Prince Camillo Borghese who married Pauline Bonaparte in 1803. This confiturier forms part of an extensive service reputedly given by Napoleon to his sister and Prince Camillo.

The design of the confiturier is generally ascribed to Percier and a drawing is conserved in the Biennais legacy. At least three other examples are known originally commissioned by 10 Hortense Beauharnais, Queen of Holland (now in the Louvre, Paris), 2) The Empress Josephine and 3) Grand Duke Michel Pavlovitch of Russia, brother of Czar Alexander I (Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam)

The Louvre example has a seated amorino finial and its height is 3.5 cm greater