An early Parisian silver basin
Shallow scalloped bowl of oval section from a Christening garniture. The narrow sides of the broad lip decorated with raised cast silver cherub's heads amid scrollwork and laurel festoons. The long sides each with two embossed and finely chased New Testament scenes. One depicting Saint John baptising Jesus in the River Jordan (Mark 1:9-11) with two figures of angels to one side holding Jesus' robes. The other showing Peter sinking in the water (Mat. 14:22) with the frightened disciples in the background watching the scene from the boat. The well engraved with the coat-of-arms of an archbishop beneath a comital crown. With a stapled restoration over a breakage to the rim. L 40.3, W 28 cm, weight 777 g.
Paris, marks of Guillaume II Loir, 1666.
The first and fourth quadrants of this coat-of-arms bear the heraldry of the Gentien family, a dynasty from Paris whose members had held important positions in the royal administration and the military since the 13th century. The basin was apparently originally intended for a house chapel.
The treasury of the Troyes Cathedral houses a communion garniture from 1665 with an almost identical basin and jug made by the Parisian goldsmith Nicolas Dolin, a former apprentice in the workshop of Guillaume Loir's father. (inv. no. 113 - 124).
Literature
This maker listed in Bimbenet-Privat, Les orfèvres et l’orfèvrerie de Paris au XVIIe, vol. I, Paris 2002, p. 42. For the comparison piece in Troyes cathedral cf. ibid., p. 357 ff. The entire set illustrated in cat. Les grands orfèvres de Louis XIII à Charles X – Collection Connaissance des Arts, Paris 1965, p. 74 f. For the coat-of-arms of the Gentien family cf. Lartigue, Dictionnaire et Armorial de l’épiscopat français (1200-2000), Paris, 2002.