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Lot Essay
FRANÇOIS-THOMAS GERMAIN SERVICE FOR THE KINGS OF PORTUGAL
The service made for the Kings of Portugal ranks among the most important surviving ensembles of eighteenth-century French silver and represents the largest commission ever entrusted by a foreign court to the Germain workshop.
Its history began in 1729, when King João V of Portugal (1689-1750) commissioned a monumental silver service from Thomas Germain (1673-1748), goldsmith to Louis XV. Completed in 1737, the service was destroyed in the devastating Lisbon earthquake of 1 November 1755.
In the aftermath of the disaster, King José I turned to François-Thomas Germain, Thomas Germain’s son and successor, who, together with the goldsmiths employed in his workshop, including Jacques Ballin, Pierre Germain, Nicolas-Martin Langlois, and Louis-Joseph Lenhendrick, received a commission in June 1756 for a new service intended for state banquets.
The order was unprecedented in scale. It comprised four complete table services, a gold service reserved for the King’s personal use, and several toilet services. The four silver services corresponded to the traditional courses of a French formal meal: the entrée, relevé, roast, and dessert. Although fully financed by the Portuguese Crown, the commission was never completed, as Germain’s bankruptcy in 1765 interrupted deliveries and complicated relations between France and Portugal.
COMMISSIONED IN 1756
Having succeeded his father in 1748, François-Thomas Germain managed one of the most celebrated workshops in Europe. His atelier already employed some forty craftsmen working from his designs, assisted by five furnaces and seventeen work-benches. The Portuguese commission, however, required a dramatic expansion of production and mobilised more than one hundred artisans. The Portuguese ambassador in Paris, Dom António de Saldanha, noted in a letter of 13 December 1756 that 'more than one hundred and twenty workmen' were engaged on what was regarded as one of the finest silver services ever undertaken.
Deliveries took place between November 1757 and May 1765. The completed pieces were packed into forty-three crates and shipped aboard Portuguese vessels departing from Le Havre. Each object was engraved with a serial number, allowing it to be recorded upon arrival in Lisbon and ensuring that the various services remained distinct. The commission is documented in an inventory preserved in the Historical Archives of the Portuguese Ministry of Finance, dated 24 June 1756, which records nearly all the pieces ordered from Germain. Only certain later additions, including the toilet services, objects intended for the king’s personal use, the princess’s toilet service, and a gold breakfast service commissioned after Germain’s bankruptcy, fall outside the scope of this register.
THE ARVOREDOS OR THE "CHERRY TREE" CANDELABRA: A CELEBRATION OF FRENCH ROCOCO
Each service was naturally accompanied by a large number of candlesticks, as well as two sets of four candelabra of two different models, described in the invoice as de figuras de sátiros (fauns and faunesses), and the other four as arvoredos (children), engraved respectively with the numbers 51 and 52. The first set made by Thomas and François-Thomas Germain was sold at Christie’s, Paris in the Graziella Patiño de Ortiz Linares Collection, 23 September 2026, lot 14 (3,399,000 EUR).
The present pair, No. 52, known as the arvoredos or the 'cherry tree' model, is the sole work of François-Thomas Germain. Their composition and style suggests that they may have been intended to be used for the dessert service to complement a surtout composed of three sculpted groups that were never delivered.
Stylistically these candelabra certainly differ from the sátiros model by Thomas Germain. The composition is in a more fully realised Rococo style with cherubs precariously balanced on a tree trunk and ripping off the branches with cherries scattered on the base of the candelabra. One fascinating element, which has contributed to the fame of the model, is undoubtedly the seemingly cracked plinth from where the cherry tree emerges, which seems to allude to the Lisbon earthquake of 1755. This feature was not completely new, as Germain had used it on the surtout for the Nabob of Golconda delivered in November 1752 (Bimbenet-Privat, op. cit., 2022, p. 169; described in the Mercure de France, December 1752, p. 150). It is possible that it was intentionally suggestive and added to the success of these candelabra, which count among François-Thomas Germain’s masterpieces.
FROM LISBON TO BRAZIL TO PARIS
Much like the Ortiz candelabra, these candelabra were later received as part of the inheritance of Emperor Pedro I when, in 1826, he renounced the throne of Portugal in favour of his daughter. His imperial monogram was then engraved on the base and the sockets’ sleeves. They were shipped to Brazil with the rest of the service when the Portuguese royal family relocated to Rio de Janeiro to flee the Napoleonic invasion.
Although most of the collection was brought back to Portugal in 1821 by King João VI, the arvoredos appear to have stayed in Brazil until the deposition of Pedro II in 1889, when they were given to Isabel of Brazil and her husband Prince Gaston of Orléans, Count of Eu (Bapst, op. cit., 1892, p. 23 and Perrin, 1993, p. 152). They subsequently entered the collection of Arturo López-Willshaw before one pair was sold to the Blaquier-Arrieta family in 1982 and the other to the Louvre Museum, Paris, in 1984 (OA 10961).
Much like the Ortiz candelabra, the Blaquier-Arrieta candelabra are a remarkable example of the French Rococo style and a testament to François-Thomas Germain’s talent not only as a goldsmith but first and foremost as a sculptor.
The service made for the Kings of Portugal ranks among the most important surviving ensembles of eighteenth-century French silver and represents the largest commission ever entrusted by a foreign court to the Germain workshop.
Its history began in 1729, when King João V of Portugal (1689-1750) commissioned a monumental silver service from Thomas Germain (1673-1748), goldsmith to Louis XV. Completed in 1737, the service was destroyed in the devastating Lisbon earthquake of 1 November 1755.
In the aftermath of the disaster, King José I turned to François-Thomas Germain, Thomas Germain’s son and successor, who, together with the goldsmiths employed in his workshop, including Jacques Ballin, Pierre Germain, Nicolas-Martin Langlois, and Louis-Joseph Lenhendrick, received a commission in June 1756 for a new service intended for state banquets.
The order was unprecedented in scale. It comprised four complete table services, a gold service reserved for the King’s personal use, and several toilet services. The four silver services corresponded to the traditional courses of a French formal meal: the entrée, relevé, roast, and dessert. Although fully financed by the Portuguese Crown, the commission was never completed, as Germain’s bankruptcy in 1765 interrupted deliveries and complicated relations between France and Portugal.
COMMISSIONED IN 1756
Having succeeded his father in 1748, François-Thomas Germain managed one of the most celebrated workshops in Europe. His atelier already employed some forty craftsmen working from his designs, assisted by five furnaces and seventeen work-benches. The Portuguese commission, however, required a dramatic expansion of production and mobilised more than one hundred artisans. The Portuguese ambassador in Paris, Dom António de Saldanha, noted in a letter of 13 December 1756 that 'more than one hundred and twenty workmen' were engaged on what was regarded as one of the finest silver services ever undertaken.
Deliveries took place between November 1757 and May 1765. The completed pieces were packed into forty-three crates and shipped aboard Portuguese vessels departing from Le Havre. Each object was engraved with a serial number, allowing it to be recorded upon arrival in Lisbon and ensuring that the various services remained distinct. The commission is documented in an inventory preserved in the Historical Archives of the Portuguese Ministry of Finance, dated 24 June 1756, which records nearly all the pieces ordered from Germain. Only certain later additions, including the toilet services, objects intended for the king’s personal use, the princess’s toilet service, and a gold breakfast service commissioned after Germain’s bankruptcy, fall outside the scope of this register.
THE ARVOREDOS OR THE "CHERRY TREE" CANDELABRA: A CELEBRATION OF FRENCH ROCOCO
Each service was naturally accompanied by a large number of candlesticks, as well as two sets of four candelabra of two different models, described in the invoice as de figuras de sátiros (fauns and faunesses), and the other four as arvoredos (children), engraved respectively with the numbers 51 and 52. The first set made by Thomas and François-Thomas Germain was sold at Christie’s, Paris in the Graziella Patiño de Ortiz Linares Collection, 23 September 2026, lot 14 (3,399,000 EUR).
The present pair, No. 52, known as the arvoredos or the 'cherry tree' model, is the sole work of François-Thomas Germain. Their composition and style suggests that they may have been intended to be used for the dessert service to complement a surtout composed of three sculpted groups that were never delivered.
Stylistically these candelabra certainly differ from the sátiros model by Thomas Germain. The composition is in a more fully realised Rococo style with cherubs precariously balanced on a tree trunk and ripping off the branches with cherries scattered on the base of the candelabra. One fascinating element, which has contributed to the fame of the model, is undoubtedly the seemingly cracked plinth from where the cherry tree emerges, which seems to allude to the Lisbon earthquake of 1755. This feature was not completely new, as Germain had used it on the surtout for the Nabob of Golconda delivered in November 1752 (Bimbenet-Privat, op. cit., 2022, p. 169; described in the Mercure de France, December 1752, p. 150). It is possible that it was intentionally suggestive and added to the success of these candelabra, which count among François-Thomas Germain’s masterpieces.
FROM LISBON TO BRAZIL TO PARIS
Much like the Ortiz candelabra, these candelabra were later received as part of the inheritance of Emperor Pedro I when, in 1826, he renounced the throne of Portugal in favour of his daughter. His imperial monogram was then engraved on the base and the sockets’ sleeves. They were shipped to Brazil with the rest of the service when the Portuguese royal family relocated to Rio de Janeiro to flee the Napoleonic invasion.
Although most of the collection was brought back to Portugal in 1821 by King João VI, the arvoredos appear to have stayed in Brazil until the deposition of Pedro II in 1889, when they were given to Isabel of Brazil and her husband Prince Gaston of Orléans, Count of Eu (Bapst, op. cit., 1892, p. 23 and Perrin, 1993, p. 152). They subsequently entered the collection of Arturo López-Willshaw before one pair was sold to the Blaquier-Arrieta family in 1982 and the other to the Louvre Museum, Paris, in 1984 (OA 10961).
Much like the Ortiz candelabra, the Blaquier-Arrieta candelabra are a remarkable example of the French Rococo style and a testament to François-Thomas Germain’s talent not only as a goldsmith but first and foremost as a sculptor.