Sumptuous Chocolate Pot Louis XV, Bruges 1754, Johannes II Herremans, Sterling Silver

Sumptuous chocolate pot from the Louis XV period in solid silver with its original handle in carved and blackened pearwood. It has a twisted body, in which the goldsmith has pushed back and chiselled long acanthus leaves which follow the twisted movement from the bottom into the lid. This cover is topped with a handle  in the shape of a fruit emerging from its foliage. This fruit  can be unscrewed to allow the installation of the turned wooden mixing stick, so typical for the consumption of hot chocolate in the eighteenth century. The feet are very refined and still deeply impregnated with the french  Regency style with their attachments in the shape of large shells. As is often the case in Bruges, the goldsmith even decorated and chiseled the bottom of the chocolate pot with a sumptuous decoration, invisible to the guests when it is placed at the table but not when the butler tilts it to serve you.... On the center of this bottom are also, slightly worn but perfectly legible, the four regulatory hallmarks of the city of Bruges: a Gothic letter B, the head of the lion of Flanders, the year 54 and the master silversmith's hallmark of Johannes II Herremans (an angel's head above capital letters IH).
As the  pictures  prove, the chocolate pots made by the Bruges silversmiths in the eighteenth century are among  of the most beautiful in the world.
It weighs a very generous 1110 grams.