A gilt bronze table centrepiece.
Cast from numerous connected parts over a wooden corpus. A stepped table centrepiece after a French model. The bottom tray of serpentine form on volute feet bearing four loosely attached candlesticks. The tray supporting an oval fruit bowl on four serpentine legs with corresponding candlesticks. Slightly worn, primarily to the tray. The eight additional florally formed nozzles regilt. H 49, W 62.5, D 46.5 cm.
2nd - 3rd quarter 18th C., purchased as Dresden but probably French.
This piece is a rare version of this table centrepiece in bronze. The models in silver are much more well-known, and the original French design was copied and produced in variations by numerous German silversmiths, especially in Augsburg. As the trays were placed in the centre of the table, making them hard to reach, they were usually filled with fruit and cruets, such as sugar casters, huiliers and spice containers, which weren't changed with each course. The most famous German centrepiece is "Das Goldene Kaffeezeug" (the golden coffee service) which Johann Melchior Dinglinger made for the royal court of Warsaw in 1701 and which is now kept in the Grüne Gewölbe in Dresden.
Provenance
Purchased in 1983 from Seidel und Sohn, Berlin
Literature
Illus. in: Katalog Orangerie, Deutscher Kunsthandel im Schloss Charlottenburg 1983, p. 114.
For the history of the centrepiece cf.: Gruber, Gebrauchssilber, Fribourg-Würzburg 1982, p. 181 ff.