A Parisian silver gilt Empire ewer and basin - image-1
A Parisian silver gilt Empire ewer and basin - image-2
A Parisian silver gilt Empire ewer and basin - image-3
A Parisian silver gilt Empire ewer and basin - image-1A Parisian silver gilt Empire ewer and basin - image-2A Parisian silver gilt Empire ewer and basin - image-3

Lot 202 Dα

A Parisian silver gilt Empire ewer and basin

Auction 1182 - overview Cologne
15.07.2021, 11:00 - The Exceptional Bernard De Leye Collection
Estimate: 20.000 € - 25.000 €
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A Parisian silver gilt Empire ewer and basin

Tall ovoid vessel with a finely chased swan shaped handle on a round waisted foot. The outer surface decorated with a band of stiff foliage and finely engraved tripods and pairs of swans amid stylised acanthus. The flaring rim of the deep oval basin with corresponding décor. Both pieces engraved with the arms of the Pieyre family with the cross of the Legion of Honour. Pitcher H 37.5, basin L 37.2, W 25.8 cm, total weight 1,780 g.
Paris, marks of Abel-Etienne Giroux, 1797/98.

Jean Pieyre (1755 - 1839) became a member of the French National Assembly in 1791, and from 1800 onward he was successively prefect of various French departments. In 1804 he was knighted in the Legion of Honour and in 1810 was raised to the rank of Baron de l'Empire.

Literature

Cf. a vase by this maker in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, illus. in Dennis, Three centuries of French domestic silver, New York 1960, p. 130, no. 170 and Giroux' bonbonnière in cat. Of the D. David-Weill collection, part III, Paris 1972, no. 35. A jug and basin auctioned at Christie's London, 10 June 2008, lot 135.