MARK OF CHARLES-NICOLAS ODIOT, PARIS, CIRCA 1840

A sculptural tea and coffee-service of the same model was displayed at the Musée Centennal, during the 1900 International Exhibition, as part of Odiot's production between 1830 and 1848. It is illustrated in H. Bouilhet, L'orfèvrerie française aux XVIIIe et XIXe siècles: 1700-1900, Paris, 1908, vol. 2, p. 219. The model had been first exhibited at the Exposition des Produits de l'Industrie Française in 1834, earning Odiot a Gold Medal. The design of the service was created at the peak of Charles-Nicolas Odiot's career, when he boasted prestigious international and French patrons such as the Sultan Mahmoud, the Castiglione family, the Prince de Polignac and Salomons de Rothschild family, for whom Odiot created a magnificent dinner service in a similar neo-Renaissance style, which had been popularised by the designer Claude-Aimé Chenavardin during the 1830s.