Silver Chocolate Pot By Jean Deharchies, Paris, 1736-1737

- Chocolate pot
- Hammered silver, melted
- By Jean Deharchies, master silversmith from 1718 to 1766
- Paris, 1736-1737
- Dim: 25 cm; Weight: 751g
- Good condition, beautiful patina, lack of amaranth handle
- Provenance: Cabot de la Fare family in Languedoc,

- Chocolate maker with a plain belly, standing on three low winding feet or "rouleaux", with ties in the shape of stylized shell. The beak, uncovered, taken on the side is bordered by a molding underlined with fillets in the extension of the edge of the neck. The domed lid is edged with a molding of wrapped rushes, a flat terrace of swirling acanthus leaves surmounted by a snail seed mounted on a pivot hides the opening of the frother. The thumb rest is a finely chiseled roll-up shell. The cylindrical side sleeve with molded edge is welded to the body by a threaded rosette echoing the two threads of the lid. The amaranth handle is screwed onto the sleeve. Arms of alliance on the belly of the 19th century: azure with three gold sculpins accompanied by the motto “Semper cor caput cabot” for the Cabot de la Fare family.

- Beautiful model typical of the Parisian production of the 1730s, with the introduction of naturalistic elements of the Roccoco: a jagged shell with large moldings in thumb rest, a border in ribboned rushes of the lid, characteristic element that we also find of the terrines of the Penthièvre service by Thomas Germain dated 1733-1734 than those of Jean-Baptiste de Lens from 1736-1737. These two elements can be found on a piece by our silversmith dated 1744, a covered pot on a tray from the collections of the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, whose jagged shell is found at the edge of the tray and the wrapped rush at the edge of the lid.

- Hallmarks (under the body and the added parts): Master: I, quintefeuille, D, surmounted by two remedy points and a three-pointed crown, for Jean Deharchies [Nocq, T.II p26-27]; Jurande: V crowned, Paris, from October 13, 1736 to September 7, 1737 [BP, n°378]; Office: Crowned, Paris, from October 15, 1732 to October 1, 1738 [BP, n°368]; Relief (on the edge of the body): a horse, relief for large and medium-sized works, Paris, from October 15, 1732 to October 1, 1738 [BP, n°370]; countermark (on the molding of the body): a lizard, countermark for works of gold and silver, Paris, from October 1, 1738 to October 1, 1744.
- Jean Deharchies: Received master goldsmith with thirty-nine other aspirants, according to the letters patent by decree of the Council of July 9, 1718, he had his hallmark stamped on January 29, 1720 with the guarantee of Jean-Baptiste de Lens, he lived in Place Dauphine, then in 1742, rue de la Draperie, in 1748, rue du Petit-Bourbon-du-Louvre, he disappeared from the community in 1766. The production of this goldsmith is relatively rare but of high quality, it is representative of the stylistic evolution of the Régence style towards roccoco.

-   Réf. : [1] Bimbenet-Privat, Michèle & de Fontaine, Gabriel : « Les poinçons de l’orfèvrerie parisienne », Paris Musées, Paris, 1995 ; [2] Bimbenet-Privat, Michèle & Fuhring Peter : « Orfèvrerie française, collection Jourdan-Barry », J. Kugel, Paris, 2005 ; [8] Mabille, Gérard : « Orfèvrerie française des XVI^e, XVII^e, XVIII^e siècles », Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris, 1984 ; [9] Perrin, Christiane : « François Thomas Germain, orfèvre des rois », Editions d’Art Monelle Hayot, Paris, 1993