This magisterial and fully illustrated catalogue of post-medieval goldsmiths’ work in the Louvre Museum has taken ten years to achieve. The principal author, Bimbenet-Privat, acknowledges the assistance of conservation colleagues who have repaired and cleaned the objects prior to comprehensive new photography.
Exciting acquisitions made during the last decade, through bequest and purchase, join gifts from generous donors including from the French banker David David-Weill in 1946. A spectacular dish cover by F T Germain surmounted by hunting trophies made for Joseph i of Portugal in 1757–8, which weighs 25kg, was previously at Ferrières, the Rothschild chateau outside Paris. It was purchased by the Louvre in 1983 (ii, cat. no 120, pp 171–4). It compares in magnificence with the surtout de table du Duc de Bourbon, supplied by Jacques Roettiers in 1734–5 (ii, pp 282–7, no. 177). Forty-five pieces of a table service made by the Paris goldsmith Henri Auguste for George iii from 1776 were assembled over forty years in collaboration with the Rothschild Foundation at Waddesdon (ii, p 24, cat. no 78).
The Renaissance ewer and basin showing the conquest of Tunis by the armies of Charles v is inspired by an Imperial model based on classical antiquity. In 1794 it was published as Florentine, but was in fact made in Antwerp in 1559, a masterpiece of Flemish mannerism. In 1793 it belonged to the Prince de Chimay, whose wife was a lady-in-waiting to Marie Antoinette (i, p 121, cat. no 24).
The gold coffer, marked for Jakob Blanck, 1677, was previously described as the gift of Cardinal Mazarin to Anne of Austria. Louis xiv used it for his personal jewels. It is later listed in the Garde des Meubles among the furniture of Napoleon Bonaparte in the Tuileries Palace (i, p 142, cat. no 28).
The gold goblet presented to Corneille de Witt in honour of his victory on the Medway 9–14 June 1667, marked in The Hague (i, p 240, cat. no 66), was one of three recording this important Dutch victory against the English on the Kent coast known as Chatham Cups. Only two survive – the other is in the Rijksmuseum.
Given the melting down of silver in France in 1689, 1709 and 1759 to finance military endeavour and bridge financial crises, French eighteenth-century silver is rare. Recent additions of eighteenth-century French silver with a history of ownership beyond France include in 2014 the pair of silver tureens with covers and stands, supplied by Nicolas Besnier for Horatio Walpole, Prime Minister Robert Walpole’s younger brother, in 1727. These exhibit the first waves of Rococo style then known in France as genre pittoresque and were made to suit the avante garde taste of this sophisticated English diplomat who arrived in Paris in 1723 determined to ‘live as ye Kings Ambassador’ (ii, p 99, cat. no 94). Their form is similar to a tureen from the workshop of Thomas Germain, which was painted by the artist A-F Desportes in 1733. The author poses the valid question as to whether Germain was responsible for the original design.
The inkstand supplied by Germain in 1746 was made for Cardinal da Cunha, Grand Inquisitor (1664–1750) who became principal minister to the Portuguese King John v (ii, 204–8, cat. no 133). It was ordered on the advice of Johann Friedrich Ludwig (1673–1752), a German goldsmith. The écuelle by the same maker, 1733, was made for Cardinal da Motta e Silva (ii, p 191, cat. no 128); a similar example made for Louis xv is recorded in an oil sketch by Desportes. The elongated stand incorporates the royal armorials, which recur on the handles of the vessel. Thomas Germain was trained as an architect, and his designs for silver demonstrate that experience and discipline. Perhaps the silver-gilt tea and coffee service made for Marie Leszczynska to celebrate the birth of the Dauphin in 1729 by Henri-Nicolas Cousinet escaped the melt because the boxed set includes mounted Japanese porcelain. The pot, which served both chocolate and coffee, the box for storing ground coffee and the bell are all appropriately adorned with cast and chased dolphins (ii, pp 127–36, cat. no 102). The coat of arms was erased following a decree by the National Assembly, who insisted that such royal heraldry was a symbol of tyranny. It compares with the important toilet service supplied by Nicolas Besnier in 1719–20 for the Duchess of Modena, granddaughter of Louis xiv (ii, pp 74–87, cat. no 88).
Thomas Germain also supplied a tea pot for Lady Anne Bateman, granddaughter of the first Duke and Duchess of Marlborough (ii, pp 200–1, cat. no 131), whose earlier table service, following her marriage in 1720, was supplied by Nicolas Besnier in 1723.
The coffee mill made in 1756 for Madame de Pompadour’s private use when enjoying breakfast with her royal lover Louis xv was supplied by Jean Ducrollay, a maker associated with gold boxes. (ii, p 146, cat. no 109) This unique confection is made in three different colours of gold, the coffee beans are chased in red gold and the leaves in green gold, on a contrasting yellow gold ground, possibly by Ducrollay’s workshop head, the designer Pasquier-Rémy Mondon (c 1712–84). The coffee mill was listed in the inventory of Madame de Pompadour’s collections after her death with its black shagreen case, which explains its excellent condition. A rock crystal ewer with a solid gold handle formed of seaweed and shells and its accompanying basin were found on close examination to be marked by Juste Aurèle Meissonnier. It later belonged to Marie Antoinette (ii, pp 245–50, cat. no 161).
The Louvre collection also includes silver made by French goldsmiths in exile. There are two pomade pots marked for Daniel Garnier, a Huguenot goldsmith who had settled in London by 1684 (i, p 236, cat. no 64), from a larger Dutch set ordered by Elizabeth de Nassau Beverweerd (1633–1718), who married Henry Bennet, first Earl of Arlington. Lord Arlington was Groom of the Stole to Catherine of Braganza in 1681. They were still in the Ilchester Collection in 1920.
A spectacular enamelled gold beaker marked for Francis Nelme originally belonged to Sir Thomas Mostyn (1704–58). It was eventually given to the Musée de Cluny by Salomon de Rothschild in 1922 (ii, p 382, cat. no 236). The third volume is devoted to cutlery and includes a three-pronged fork marked for Henri Béziers from St Martin in Ile de Ré (iii, p 261), recorded as working there from 1677–81, who later settled in England as a Huguenot refugee, at first in Bristol and then in London.
