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Sauceboat and stand

Jean-Nicolas Boulanger (Master 1783; still working 1809)
French (Paris)
1788
Object Place: Europe, Paris, France

Medium/Technique Metal; silver
Dimensions 21.8 x 26.1 x 17.2 cm (8 9/16 x 10 1/4 x 6 3/4 in.)
Credit Line Elizabeth Parke Firestone and Harvey S. Firestone, Jr. Collection
Accession Number1993.355a-b
NOT ON VIEW
CollectionsEurope
ClassificationsSilver

DescriptionAn oval boat-shaped sauceboat on oval plateau. The base supported on four scroll and acanthus legs with a concave edge engraved with panels and cartouches, a chased band of water leaves, and a rim of suaged wire. The sauceboat on an oval foot with suaged wire at the base and rim, the raised arc handle an acanthus leaf.
Marks Maker's Mark: before the revolution, a crowned fluer-de-lys, 2 grains, JNB, a sheaf of wheat (Dennis 67): Underside of boat, inside boat base, underside of plateau. Warden's Mark: 1788-89, a crowned P with 88 (Dennis 10): Underside of boat, inside boat base, underside of plateau. Charge Mark: 1789-92, an A with 5, in a circle with latticed border (Dennis 10): Underside of boat, inside boat base, underside of plateau. Discharge Mark: 1789-92, a vine leaf with 2,in a circle (Dennis 10): rim of plateau, sauceboat base. Other: Guarantee mark for large work, 1819-1838, a bearded man in an oval looking left, with a dot and 49 (Arminjon et al p 27), the number 49 corresponding to the department of the Marne, Bureau of Châlons of Reims (Rosenberg IV p 210). Fineness mark for silver, titre 950, 1819-1838, a draped old woman in an octagon with 1 (Arminjon et al p 27).
Provenance1912, Leon Helft (dealer), Paris. 1915, Jean Boivin, Paris. By 1920, David David-Weill (b. 1871 - d. 1952), Paris and Neuilly-sur-Seine [see note 1]; probably sold by David-Weill to Jacques Helft (dealer), New York [see note 2]; June, 1959, sold by Helft to Elizabeth Parke Firestone (b. 1897 - d. 1990) and Harvey S. Firestone, Jr. (b. 1898 - d. 1973), Akron, OH and Newport, RI; 1993, gift of the estate of Elizabeth Parke Firestone and Harvey S. Firestone, Jr. to the MFA. (Accession Date: May 26, 1993)

NOTES:
[1] The early twentieth-century provenance is taken from information in the files of Elizabeth and Harvey Firestone, according to which David David-Weill lent the sauceboat and stand to the "Exposition d'orfèvrerie française civile du XVIe siècle au débout du XIXe" (Paris, Musée des arts decoratifs, April 12 - May 12, 1926), cat. no. 224.

[2] On David-Weill's relationship with Jacques Helft, see Hector Feliciano: The Lost Museum: The Nazi Conspiracy to Steal the World's Greatest Works of Art (New York, 1997), pp. 88-89.