Paris press release

Paris | 33 (0)1 53 05 53 66 | Sophie Dufresne | sophie.dufresne@sothebys.com

Paris | 33 (0)1 53 05 52 32 | Chloé Brézet | chloe.brezet@sothebys.com

Important European Silver, Gold Boxes & Objects of Vertu


Paris, April 2014 - Sotheby's 197-lot sale of Important Silver, Gold Boxes & Objects of Vertu, to be held in Paris on May 13, features items from Belgium, Germany and New York as well as Italy (Valadier, Belli, Fino and Fumagalli) and France (Mauboussin, Mellerio, Puiforcat, Froment-Meurice, Odiot, Boullier).

Royal & Princely Items Several items still bear the mark of illustrious former owners. Connoisseurs will be able to bid for some exceptional princely items, like a late 18th century burrwood snuffbox containing strands of hair belonging to Louis XVI, Marie-Antoinette and their son the Dauphin. Each strand can be clearly identified thanks to jewellery conserved in the Musée Carnavalet in Paris (lot 15, estimate €4,000-6,000 / $5,600- 8,300).

Agrément N° 2001 - 002 du 25 octobre 2001

Vente dirigée par Stéphanie Denizet


Imperial grandeur is represented by a pair of circular silver-plated tazza by Christofle (Paris 1859-61) featuring the arms of Napoleon III, their rims delicately worked with pearls and shells (lot 97, est. €4,000-6,000

/$5,600-8,300).

Another highlight is pair of large silver-gilt dishes from the prestigious Demidoff
Service made by Jean-Baptiste-Claude Odiot for Count Nikolai Demidoff (1773-
1828) in 1817, just after the fall of Napoleon. The service is one of the most famous Odiot ever made, and renowned for the quality of its silver-gilt and sculpted decoration (lot 101, est. €8,000-12,000 / $11,100-16,600).

There will also be a pair of French silver wine-coolers (lot 100, est. €6,000-8,000), and a large parcel-gilt silver punch-bowl by Marret Frères (c.1860), applied with the arms of the Dukes of Lévis- Mirepoix and the family motto Dieu aide au second chrétien Lévis (lot 103, est. €4,500-6,000 / $6,300-8,300).

Another prestigious item is an exceptional parcel-gilt silver sauce ladle by Luigi Valadier, the most famous Italian silversmith of the 18th century. The ladle comes from a service made for Prince Marc-Antoine Borghese - the most important commission Valadier ever received (lot 144, est. €12,000-18,000 / $16,600-24,900).
Apart from being beautifully crafted, a silver Holy Water bucket by Pierre Doublet (1666/7) will be highly sought-after as it is engraved with the arms of Louis XIV - one of the few items with the Sun King's arms to have survived. The bucket is thought to pre-date the court's move to Versailles, and may well have been made for the chapel in one of the king's earlier palaces, probably St-Germain-en-Laye (lot 186, est. €20,000-

30,000 / $27,700-41,500).

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A Dazzling Array of Creatures


The sale also includes an amazing ensemble of eighty silver birds and animals from an Italian private collection (lots 23-
38), ranging from a life-size Turkey to a miniature Rhinoceros via a Stag, Marabou, Grouse and Parrots. All these refined creatures seem frozen in precious matter - like the large 20th century pair of silver and silver-gilt Herons shown opposite (lot 28, est. €4,000-6,000 / $5,600-8,300).

Other Highlights


Other sale highlights include a large, elegant, beautifully made silver-gilt toilet-mirror by Jean-Baptiste-Claude Odiot (Paris, 1809-19), mounted on a mahogany support. The presence of a hallmark bearing the silversmith's name in full suggests the mirror was commissioned by a leading light of First Empire
society - perhaps Napoleon's sister, Pauline Borghese
(lot 121, est. €100,000-150,000 / $139,000-208,000).
Lending the sale an Art Deco touch is a silver-gilt, crystal and tainted glass monstrance dated 1937, made by the prestigious jewellers Mellerio - a firm founded at the start of the 17th century and renowned as suppliers to the Queens of France (est. €15,000-

20,00/ $20,800-27,700).


The arts of the table will be even more prominent than usual, led by a three-billed silver fountain for serving hot drinks, designed by Guillielmus van Eesbeeck of Brussels in 1730 and engraved with the
arms of the Van der Noot family (lot 140,

est. €15,000-25,000 / $20,800-34,600).

In even more spectacular vein is a 61- piece silver service by Black, Star & Frost, Tiffany and Cartier (lot 83, New York, c.1900, est. €35,000-45,000 /

$48,400-62,500).

Perhaps the sale's most poetic item is an oval Italian Dragonfly centrepiece (c.1900) ringed by a frieze of waterlilies (see photo front page). A graceful nymph on a rock stands at one end, stretching out her slender arms as if about to take flight - or dive into the gleaming waters of the pool below, where a fish emerges amidst delicate ripples (lot 104, est. €15,000-20,000 / $20,800-27,700).

Auction at Sotheby's Paris - 13 May 2014

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* estimates do not include buyer's premium

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