A FINE LOUIS XV SILVER EWER AND BASIN

Details

A FINE LOUIS XV SILVER EWER AND BASIN
TOULOUSE, 1761, MAKER'S MARK OF LOUIS SAMSON II

The spirally fluted baluster shaped ewer on shaped circular foot chased with a band of rocaille, the lower part of the body elaborately chased with foliage, rocaille, swans and two naked mermaids under a fountain, chased under the reeded rim with rocaille and acanthus, the scroll handle cast with foliage and rocaille, and with scroll thumbpiece, the side engraved with a monogram; the shaped oval basin with reeded rim with rocaille at intervals, the border chased with a band of foliage on a matted gound, marked on base of both ewer and basin; also struck with later control marks--height of ewer 10in. (25.5cm.); length of basin 15¼in. (38.5cm.)
(71 oz.)

Provenance

Bulgari, Rome, 1958

Exhibited

French Eighteenth Century Silver from the Collection of Rodolphe and Williamina Meyer de Schauensee, Philadelphia Museum of Art, September 29, 1990-January 20, 1991

Lot Essay

Louis II, son of Joachim Samson, was born November 30, 1710 and admitted master December 28, 1731. As Jean Thuile observes, "on peut dire que c'est a partir de Louis II que s'affirme et se repand la renomme des Samson, Ses oeuvres maîtresses sont parmi les plus belles de l'orfèvrerie française du XVIII siècle et peuvent figurer sans demeriter aux côtés de celles des grands noms des maîtres parisiens." (L'Orfèvrerie du Languedoc; Repertoire des Orfèvres, vol. II, p. 38)

Perhaps Samson's best known work is the ewer and basin of 1762, similiar to the present example, formerly in the collection of the Marquis da Foz and now in the Musée des Arts Decoratifs, Paris (see Mabille, Orfèvrerie Française des XVIe XVIIe XVIIIe Siècles, Paris, 1984, p. 217)