WITH SPURIOUS MARKS FOR JACQUES-NICOLAS ROETTIERS, PARIS, 1770, AND SPURIOUS RUSSIAN CONTROL MARKS FOR 1784; FRANCE, EARLY 20TH CENTURY

Details

A FRENCH SILVER SOUP TUREEN, COVER AND STAND AFTER THE ORLOFF SERVICE
WITH SPURIOUS MARKS FOR JACQUES-NICOLAS ROETTIERS, PARIS, 1770, AND SPURIOUS RUSSIAN CONTROL MARKS FOR 1784; FRANCE, EARLY 20TH CENTURY
Oval, raised on four large scroll supports decorated at the base with spreading acanthus, centered by vertical overlapping piastres and applied at the top with wreath handles from which spread berried foliage, the cover domed and fluted in centre and chased with a band of Vitruvian scrolls with paterae at intervals, the finial formed as an urn chased with scalework, applied with ribbon-bows and capped by a bud; the inside of the cover lightly engraved with Vitruvian scrolls and paterae and the flutes outlined and centered by a stylized web; the conforming stand chased with alternating fluted and husk pendants raised on eight partly leaf-chased baluster supports, chased with an outer band of overlapping leaves; the stand engraved No. 10 and stamped 10, the cover No 15 and 15 and scratched 4; fully marked with French and Russian marks and assay scrapes
The stand 50 cm. (19 5⁄8) long
402 oz. 8 dwt. (12,517 gr.)

Provenance

Anonymous sale; Christie's, Geneva, 29 April 1975, lot 187.
With Jacques Kugel, Paris, June 1975,
Acquired from the above by the Blaquier-Arrieta Family.

Conditions of sale

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Lot Essay

This tureen is after the tureens of the famous Orloff service commissioned around 1770 by Empress Catherine the Great. Designed for about sixty guests, the service of over 3,000 pieces was created in Paris by the celebrated silversmiths Jacques and Jacques-Nicolas Roëttiers, under the supervision of the sculptor Étienne-Maurice Falconet. In 1772, she unexpectedly presented the service to her former favourite, Grigory Orloff, as a parting gift after the end of their relationship. After Orloff's death in 1783, she repurchased it for the Imperial collection. Following the Russian Revolution, much of the service was dispersed through Soviet sales and auctions. Today, only about 230 pieces survive in museums and private collections, including the Louvre, the Hermitage, the Kremlin Museums, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

This magnificent service remains one of the most iconic French Neoclassical service made and was subsequently unsurprisingly copied.

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