Paris, 1765, Charles-françois Lautran, Sugar Spoon, Solid Silver, Louis XV Style

Sugar or sugar sifting spoon, filleted design
Paris, 1765 — Charles-François Lautran

Solid silver sugar spoon from the Louis XV period, filleted design. The handle, edged with moldings, widens into a spatula with slightly scalloped contours. The circular, hollow bowl features an elegant openwork design centered around a rosette. Concentric crowns of leafy scrollwork, fleurons, and four-lobed florets form a symmetrical design, bordered by a plain edge. This openwork design allowed fine sugar to be sprinkled evenly over fruit and desserts.

The spoon bears the Parisian hallmarks: the crowned “A” for the maker’s mark, the braque’s head for the finisher’s mark, and the crowned “B” for the common mark for 1765, as well as the master silversmith’s mark: a crowned fleur-de-lis, two grains, the letters C F L, and a miter. A later relief hallmark for older pieces, in the shape of a lyre, used during the period 1782–1789, is also present.

Charles-François Lautran was admitted as a master goldsmith in Paris on March 24, 1762, and had his hallmark engraved on the following March 29. He was based at Pont au Change, where he is still mentioned in 1766, and was declared deceased by the guild’s officers on June 21, 1777. Several sugar spoons, serving spoons, and table cutlery bearing his hallmark are known.

Length: 20.2 cm. Bowl diameter: 7 cm.