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Lot Essay
Jacques Roettiers was admitted to the Goldsmiths Guild in Paris in 1733. He succeeded Nicolas Besnier, his father-in-law, as Royal goldsmith in 1737. He retired in 1772 and was ennobled as Jacques Roettiers de la Tour prior to his death in 1784. He was patronized by many of the leading European courts and is famous for the Berkeley Castle service (1735-1738) and the surtout-de-table commissioned by the Elector of Cologne described in the Mercure de France in July 1749.
The present tureen appears to have been a special commission from a Danish nobleman who would have overseen its design. Unfortunately, as is often the case in Denmark but not in France, the tureen is not engraved with the original owner's coat-of-arms.
It is interesting to note that one of the most important political Danish figures of the second half of eighteenth century, Landgrave Adam Gottlob Moltke, who was Lord Chancellor of Denmark and friend and mentor to King Frederick V, ordered many tureens in Copenhagen in 1759. Some of them were made in the workshops of Andreas Jacob Rudolph and Christopher Jonsen and are very similar to the present French example. They remain in the Moltke family. Adam Gottlob married a von Raben and had twenty-three children and the Roettier's tureen may have entered the von Raben family through this connection. He built one of the four Amalienborg Palaces which later became the Royal palace.
In the Court archives, it is also noted that another Danish Court dignitary, the Premier Ecuyer de Sa Majesté (Chief of the Royal Stable), was given three French tureens in 1759. These pieces were part of a silver order of 1754, finally delivered in 1758 by Monsieur Ducrollay, a French royal agent, comprising: "un pot-à-oille, trois soupières, trois plats et deux aiguières pour 7533 livres au Grand Ecuyer du Roi du Danemark".
(We are very much indebted to Mrs Anne Raabye Majle, Art Historian for her kind help with the footnote).
The present tureen appears to have been a special commission from a Danish nobleman who would have overseen its design. Unfortunately, as is often the case in Denmark but not in France, the tureen is not engraved with the original owner's coat-of-arms.
It is interesting to note that one of the most important political Danish figures of the second half of eighteenth century, Landgrave Adam Gottlob Moltke, who was Lord Chancellor of Denmark and friend and mentor to King Frederick V, ordered many tureens in Copenhagen in 1759. Some of them were made in the workshops of Andreas Jacob Rudolph and Christopher Jonsen and are very similar to the present French example. They remain in the Moltke family. Adam Gottlob married a von Raben and had twenty-three children and the Roettier's tureen may have entered the von Raben family through this connection. He built one of the four Amalienborg Palaces which later became the Royal palace.
In the Court archives, it is also noted that another Danish Court dignitary, the Premier Ecuyer de Sa Majesté (Chief of the Royal Stable), was given three French tureens in 1759. These pieces were part of a silver order of 1754, finally delivered in 1758 by Monsieur Ducrollay, a French royal agent, comprising: "un pot-à-oille, trois soupières, trois plats et deux aiguières pour 7533 livres au Grand Ecuyer du Roi du Danemark".
(We are very much indebted to Mrs Anne Raabye Majle, Art Historian for her kind help with the footnote).