Horloge à la langue (A.R. 327)

The present lot shows a cat with its tongue out in high relief, a design that is individually selected, designed, seen, approved and cherished by Picasso. In the 1950s Picasso commissioned the French silversmith François Victor-Hugo to make a series of twenty plates in silver. At that time Picasso already was producing decorative ceramic plates. However Picasso deemed the ceramic plates brittle and he told art historian Douglas Cooper he believed the plates would look excellent when executed in silver, but he didn't know anyone who could undertake the project. Cooper then introduced him to Hugo, who was immediately excited about it. As an experiment Picasso gave Hugo one of his ceramic plates for him to produce in silver. Picasso was more than pleased with the result and he authorized Hugo to make more versions. Over a period of ten years Hugo produced twenty different silver plates, each in an edition of 20. Picasso kept two versions of each plate for himself and Hugo also kept two exemplaires d'auteurs. This particular silver plate by Picasso was acquired ath the sale at Van Wisselingh & Co. in 1977. They were able to get the collection to Amsterdam for the exhitibion Picasso 19 plats en argent par François et Pierre Hugo.