- Lot 106

Lot 106
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Estimation :
6000 - 8000 EUR
- Lot 106
Abel Etienne GIROUX (circa 1766- circa 1820) Ewer and its silver basin. The ewer stands on a pedestal with a base decorated with palmettes and pearls. The slender body begins with a decoration of gadroons. It is engraved with water leaves surmounted by a frieze of swans and neoclassical lights reminiscent of ancient Athenians. The neck also has a row of fused palmettes and a band of twigs. The flared spout ends with a ribbon twist, a legacy of the taste of the Ancien Régime. The handle shows a swan, worked with a chisel, standing out freely. It has two wings, typical of the end of the reign of Louis XVI and the Directoire style. It ends with elegance in a scroll mixing different stylistic vocabulary of the return from Egypt. This ewer is a perfect example of the transition between the neoclassicism of the Ancien Régime and that of the Empire. The basin is presented as a nave, like the basins of Antiquity. The engraving takes up the motifs of the ewer before ending at the points by two masks of Minerva in silver melted in one piece. Work done around 1800. Poinconnée under the basin, under the ewer, on the side, and on the handle. Punches 1st cock (1798-1815), community of the Parisian goldsmiths saysJeannette, Parisian guarantee, punch of the goldsmith AEG with panache. Ewer : 38 cm - Gross weight : 931 gr Basin : 43 x 25 x 16,5 cm - Gross weight : 813 gr Carries the number AM, probably for André Masséna, during the prohibition of the wearing of coats of arms. Despite the importance of this silversmith, we know very little about him. It is thanks to the research of the second half of the 20th century, in particular on the pieces of the David-Weill collection and that of Puiforcat, that this silversmith can come out of oblivion. Abel Etienne Giroux was born in Paris around 1766 and died at the beginning of the Restoration. We know that his hallmark is inscribed in 1798. He is going to associate with the goldsmith Leguay who realizes metal doubled of silver. Their association is quoted in 1805 and renewed in 1814. From 1800 onwards, Abel Etienne Giroux worked at Singe Violet, a subcontractor of Martin-Guillaume Biennais who became the official supplier of Napoleon Bonaparte in 1802. He employed goldsmiths, cabinetmakers, table makers and ornamentalists. Giroux is cited as one of the main silversmiths that Biennais employed to supply the Emperor's homes. This is the case of the ewer kept in the Chapelle de Vermeil in Fontainebleau, made in 1805, the model of which is derived from our ewer. His work of rare finesse takes up the forms of the basin and the ewer without equalling the complexity of the figures of our piece. In 1806, on the strength of his success, Giroux moved to 51 quai du Nord in a shop he called "la belle argenterie de table et autres" before moving to 79 quai de l'horloge with a shop of the same name in 1811. Giroux worked for the Russian court through orders from Biennais. Some of his pieces are now kept in the Hermitage. Abel Etienne Giroux drew his repertoire from ancient goldsmiths. In particular in the works of the silversmith Nicolas Delaunay, official supplier of the bishoprics of France under Louis XIV as it is possible to see it on a ewer preserved in the cathedral of Poitiers, made in 1697, whose handle is very close to the ewers which he makes in the second part of the Empire. The silversmith probably worked during the Restoration although there is no mention of him after 1818. He could have had several pupils such as Marc Augustin Lebrun, registered in 1810, whose work is greatly inspired and takes up many models. A set of high quality pieces of this silversmith were sold at the Bernard de Leye collection, at Lempertz on 15/7/21, in particular lot 202, a ewer and its basin in vermeil with a similar model, but less accomplished. Provenance: It seems that our ewer was made for André Masséna (1758-1817) when he was living at the Château de Rueil in Rueil-Malmaison. André Masséna, Duke of Rivoli and Prince of Essling, was one of the greatest soldiers of the second half of the 18th century and of the Empire. Originally from Nice where he spent his childhood, he committed himself very early to a military career. During the French Revolution, at the age of 31, he revealed great leadership abilities and became one of the most eminent generals of the then nascent French Republic. In 1799, he won the second battle of Zurich, definitively routing the Russian troops of General Korsakov and winning a huge booty for the French nation. Following the coup d'état of 18 Brumaire which put Napoleon in power, Masséna took command of the last French troops in Italy. He de
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