PARIS 1788 - 1789 - Lot 260

PARIS 1788 - 1789 Circular silver covered bouillon with two side handles. The body is plain, the lid molded with twisted gadroons on the stave forming a terrace supporting the socket. It features a courting dog (probably a Bichon) au naturel, carved in the round. sitting on its hindquarters, right paw raised on a command stick. The lid is chased with a laurel-leaf interlace. The handles, with two The handles, with two attachment points, are embellished with a falling foliage motif on an amati background. Master silversmith: Antoine BOULLIER, received in 1775, Grand prix de l'école gratuite de dessin in 1774, supplier to foreign courts including that of Catherine II of Russia from 1783 Dating from 1788 - 1789, at the start of the troubled times that were to follow, it is rare and to see an everyday silver object underlined by a catch featuring a pet common to the common to the aristocracy, reminiscent of the motif on the armrests of the pair of armchairs of armchairs "à la reine" from the cabinet de la méridienne at Versailles, delivered by Georges Jacob delivered by Georges Jacob a few years earlier in 1781, which featured a dog's head of the same type. Although dogs were depicted alongside their masters as early as the 16th century (portraits of Titian's portraits of Frederick Gonzaga and Charles V), in the 18th century Jean-Jacques Bachelier (1724 - 1806) made a specialty of depicting these pets, often often anthropomorphized pets, alone, without their master, a testament to their importance to their owners. The famous 1768 portrait of a Havana dog in ribbons Havana dog, standing on its hind legs. Weight: 938 g - diameter: 17.8 cm - height: 13.3 cm Hallmarks under the body, under the lid of the master goldsmith, the charge, the letter date and the discharge around the rim. on the rim. Condition: fixing method of the plug changed inside the lid by nuts, probable old restoration Expert: Claire BADILLET