Paris 1823-1838 - Solid Silver Drageoir With Dolphins By Lenglet, Louis XVIII Period

Solid silver sweetmeat dish with iconography of abundance and dolphins, by the master silversmith Charles-Antoine-Armand LENGLET.

The body displays an openwork decoration of cornucopias framing large palmettes, scrolls, acanthus leaves, small flowers and medallions, set upon an architecturally conceived base. The scrolling side handles are enriched with a finely sculpted decoration.
The cover is surmounted by a finial in the form of a bursting pomegranate resting on a radiating terrace.

Four dolphins support the bowl and are set upon a circular plinth, itself placed on a quadrangular base decorated with a frieze of fruit and fully blossomed roses alternating with floral medallions on a matte ground. The whole rests on four claw feet.

The interior lining is in crystal cut with oves, perfectly fitted to the silver mount.

• Master silversmith: CAL, a lion with a star above, for Charles-Antoine-Armand LENGLET
• Vieillard first standard (solid silver 950/1000, Paris, between 1819 and 1838)
• Paris large guarantee mark
• Paris medium guarantee mark

Gross weight: 718 g
Silver weight: 470 g

The dolphin motif constitutes a recurring theme in the ornamentation of silverwork from the Restoration period. Inherited from the decorative vocabulary of the Empire, it is here treated in a differentiated manner, both preserving and reintroducing symbolic and monarchic references of classical inspiration.

Condition report:
Very fine state of preservation, both of the silver mount and the crystal lining.

Wholesale silversmith established at 32, rue du Bourg-l’Abbé, Paris.
Maker’s mark registered on 25 October 1823 and struck off on 8 August 1843: CAL and a lion surmounted by a star within a vertical lozenge.

Charles-Antoine-Armand LENGLET succeeds the silversmith Jean-Pierre-Nicolas BIBRON. He operates from 32, rue du Bourg-l’Abbé, where his workshop rapidly becomes one of the foremost in the capital. At an advanced age, in 1843, he sells his workshop to the silversmith Pierre-François-Augustin TURQUET and thereafter devotes himself to sculpture, becoming a pupil of CARTELLIER. This late vocation explains the relatively limited number of his sculptural works.

He exhibits for the first time at the Salon des Artistes Français in 1846, presenting two marble busts. In 1847, he exhibits La Fileuse, a work which earns him a third-class medal and is subsequently requested by the city of Saint-Quentin from the Minister of the Interior. In 1848, he presents Jeune fille jouant avec une chèvre, a plaster, and is awarded a second-class medal.
He also receives a commission for a bronze statue representing the pastellist Maurice-Quentin DE LA TOUR, presented at the Paris Salon of 1855.

At the same time, LENGLET produces numerous paintings, primarily devoted to scenes of washerwomen working along rivers or lakes. These works, preserved in private collections, do not appear to have been exhibited during his lifetime.

Charles-Antoine-Armand LENGLET dies in Paris on 23 October 1855.

• MUSÉE VERGER-TARIN, Autun - Pair of silver candlesticks decorated with friezes, rows of hearts and palmettes, inv. 01620011172
• PRIVATE COLLECTION, Neufchâteau - Oil and double salt cruet in gilt silver and crystal decorated with gadroons, palmettes and vegetal motifs, listed as a Historic Monument, inv. IM88002052.
• PRIVATE COLLECTION, Neufchâteau - Oil cruet in silver and crystal decorated with gadroons, listed as a Historic Monument, inv. IM88002051.
• MOBILIER NATIONAL, Paris - Bust, plaster and stucco, inv. GMLC-313-000.
• MUSÉE ANTOINE LÉCUYER, Saint-Quentin - La Fileuse, third prize at the Paris Salon of 1847.

• The Silver Collection of the Musée Verger-Tarin, Musée Rolin, Autun, 2 February to 28 April 1985.

• JEAN BERTHOLLET, Le Mobilier français du XVIIIe siècle, Éditions Jussieu, Autun, 1947.
• The Silver Collection of the Musée Verger-Tarin, Musée Rolin, Autun, 2 February to 28 April 1985.