A LOUIS XVI SILVER-GILT ÉCUELLE, COVER AND STAND

Details

A LOUIS XVI SILVER-GILT ÉCUELLE, COVER AND STAND
MONTPELLIER, 1786, MAKER'S MARK OF M.E. FORTIER

Of circular form, the two shaped flat handles cast and chased with foliage, scrolls and rocaille, the domed cover chased with circular paterae between matted panels enclosing a band of floral swags, with cast cabbage-form finial, struck on body and cover with the mark of the jurande of Montpellier, the charge and discharge and maker's mark ME over F--length over handles 12¾in. (32.3cm.)
(29oz.)

Provenance

Louis Carré Collection
Bulgari, Rome 1956

Literature

Louis Carré, Guide de L'Amateur D'Orfèvrerie Française, pl. 28, fig.

Lot Essay

While Jean Thuile records M.E. Fortier as garde with Louis Baron during this period, this écuelle is struck with the mark used by Fortier as a maker (see Thuile L'Orfèvrerie du Languedoc; Repertorie des Orfèvres, Montrouge, 1966, p. 169).

Finials in the form of cabbages appear to have been especially popular in the south of France. A virtually identical finial appears on an écuelle from Toulouse, 1784, with the maker's mark of L. Dulaurier II, sold by Sotheby's Monaco, June 24, 1986.