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Lot Essay
The design for this dessert service is after a drawing now held in the collection of Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris dated 1775-1780 and attributed to Langlois (a gift of Baron Robert de Rothschild, 1925, no. 24726 B).
Nicolas-Martin Langlois was apprenticed to Claude and Jacques Ballin before entering his mark in 1757. Described in the Almanach Dauphin as a cuilleriste (a spoon maker), he worked closely with Robert-Joseph Auguste on several commissions including the Russian services for Empress Catherine the Great.
The sophistication of the design suggests it may have been intended to be made in gold for an important client. At that period Auguste was working on the order of Christian VII (1749-1808), King of Denmark, although there is no comparable dessert service recorded in the Royal Danish silver service, however not all French pieces have survived (see Krog, Ole Villumsen (ed.), A King's Feast: The Goldsmith's Art and Royal Banqueting in the 18th Century, Copenhagen, The Royal Exhibition Fund, 1991, p. 99 and 104).
Nicolas-Martin Langlois was apprenticed to Claude and Jacques Ballin before entering his mark in 1757. Described in the Almanach Dauphin as a cuilleriste (a spoon maker), he worked closely with Robert-Joseph Auguste on several commissions including the Russian services for Empress Catherine the Great.
The sophistication of the design suggests it may have been intended to be made in gold for an important client. At that period Auguste was working on the order of Christian VII (1749-1808), King of Denmark, although there is no comparable dessert service recorded in the Royal Danish silver service, however not all French pieces have survived (see Krog, Ole Villumsen (ed.), A King's Feast: The Goldsmith's Art and Royal Banqueting in the 18th Century, Copenhagen, The Royal Exhibition Fund, 1991, p. 99 and 104).