Sterling And Gilt Silver Sauce Boat By Alberti, Strasbourg, 1789

- Sauce boat
- Hammered, cast, chiseled, and gilded silver
- Master silversmith:Jacob-Heinrich Alberti, master silversmith in Strasbourg from 1764 to 1795
- Strasbourg, 1789
- Length: 22.6 cm; height: 16.5cm; width: 17.2 cm; weight: 480 g
- Superb condition: amati in near-new condition, traces of agate polishing still visible. No restoration,original gilding in perfect condition.
- Provenance: Fraysse et associés auction,Drouot, Paris, December 1, 2010, lot 50 (probably), private collection  

Silver sauceboat, of anoblong, bulging shape, resting on an oval pedestal molded with a quarter-roundchiseled with a cord motif. The wavy rim is accented by a fillet offillet molding. The openwork side handles, formed of celery stalks tied with aribbon, frame a body adorned at its base with applied wavy laurel leavesexecuted in amati. The two spouts are embellished with applied claspsin the form of chiseled parsley leaves. The interior is in vermeil.

This extremely rare sauceboat is a remarkable example of table silverware produced in Strasbourg. Only one other identical sauceboat, made in the same year, is known today. Its base is found on a vermeil tazza crafted by the silversmith in 1788, while the decoration of applied laurel leaves also appears on a gilt silver bowl from 1784 crafted by his competitor Johannes Jacob Kirstein. These elements give this model a distinctly antique character, while revealing the clear influence of a silversmith such as Robert-Joseph Auguste, whose decorations of lanceolate leaves— cast and reworked in chasing—constitute are curring motif in his ornamentation, no. 76: “Tazza of a prince of the Holy Roman Empire.” [KBL] no. 74: “Bowl and its display stand.” no. 12, pp. 21–24: “Lidded ewer and its basin” by Robert-Joseph Auguste, Paris, 1784–1785. MAD, Inv.GR 146).

- Hallmarks (under the body of thesauceboat): Mark of origin: 13 surmounted by a fleur-de-lis,mark for small items in Strasbourg from 1750 to 1789 ([Helft] No. 1116b& [KBL] Appendix); guild mark: 5 surmounted by a helmet with plumes,hallmark of the Strasbourg guild in 1789 ([Helft] No. 1115a & [KBL] Appendix);master goldsmith (hallmark split lengthwise): ALBERTI in arectangle for Jacob Heirich Alberti, admitted as a master goldsmith in Strasbourg in 1764 ([Helft]No. 1112d & [KBL] Appendix).

Ref.: [Helft] Helft,Jacques: “Hallmarks of the French Provinces,” Ed. F. deNobele, Paris, 1968 [KBL]Kugel, Alexis; Bastian, Philippe & Loeb-Obrenan,Pauline: “Vermeilleux!Gilded Silver from Strasbourg from the 16th to the 19th Century,”Paris, Editions Monelle Hayot, 2014