A Rococo silver platter - image-1
A Rococo silver platter - image-2
A Rococo silver platter - image-3
A Rococo silver platter - image-1A Rococo silver platter - image-2A Rococo silver platter - image-3

Lot 175 Dα

A Rococo silver platter

Auction 1182 - overview Cologne
15.07.2021, 11:00 - The Exceptional Bernard De Leye Collection
Estimate: 25.000 € - 30.000 €

A Rococo silver platter

Slightly recessed round scalloped platter with a smooth well. The broad lip finely engraved with scrollwork which continues in relief on the cast rim. With a later conjoined monogram “ZMR”. Diameter 29.5 cm.
Paris, marks of François-Thomas Germain, 1764/65.

This plate originates from the extensive service that François-Thomas Germain produced for the Portuguese royal family, the first pieces from which were delivered in 1757. Eight identical works can be found in the Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga in Lisbon.

The original design sketch for the piece with Germain's hand-written annotations is housed in the drawing cabinet of the St. Petersburg Hermitage, it also includes the arranged sale price: "Assiette ornée du poids de trente six marcs la douzaine. Le prix est de soixante quinze livre pour la façon de chaque assiettes".

Literature

Cf. Hernmarck, The Art of the European Silversmith, London 1977, p. 110, and cat. of the D. David-Weill collection, part II, no. 25. For more on Germain, see Frégnac, Les Grand Orfèvres de Louis XIII à Charles X, Lausanne 1965, p. 174 ff. and cat. Royal Treasures from the Louvre, San Francisco 2013, no. 47.