Double Salt Cellar With An Obelisk By Victor Boivin, Paris, Saltcellar In Solid Silver And Crystal

Double saltcellar in solid silver with an obelisk grip surmounted by a sphere.
It has a very beautiful decoration of young musicians fauns, vine branches, beaded nets. The central medallions are virgin (not engraved) and adorned with acanthus leaves and cut leathers. It is adorned on the obelisk with medallions of heads of radiant angels, laurel friezes, ribbons, garlands of vine branches punctuated by Bacchus heads in sheath, leafy feet ending in lion paws.

Blue crystal verrines.

Hallmarks

• French Minerve1^ertitre(950/1000).
• VB, a crescent, a star above, one below, for Victor BOIVIN.

Weight, 106 grams.


Can form a pairwith another salt cellar by LAPAR, also in our collections.


VICTOR BOIVIN
Goldsmith in Paris, 5, rue de Montmorency.

Victor BOIVIN succeeds his father, Jules BOIVIN, goldsmith specializing in tableware active from January 20, 1862 to February 1, 1881 and installed at 15, rue des Quatre Fils in Paris.
His brother is the famous jeweler René BOIVIN [1], who did his apprenticeship as a goldsmith at Victor before founding his fine jewelry house and marrying Jeanne POIRET, the sister of the great couturier Paul POIRET.
In 1897, Victor set up his workshops at 5 rue de Montmorency in the Marais, the goldsmiths quarter, in the historic Hôtel Thiroux de Lailly, sometimes called Hôtel de Montmorency because of its construction on the site of a hotel which belonged until 1632 to the Maison de MONTMORENCY [2].

The BOIVIN goldsmith's house was taken over by the RAVINET D'ENFER house at the beginning of the 20th century.


MUSEUMS AND PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS

• MUSÉE D'ORSAY, PARIS, BOIVIN, Paire d’assiettes montées tripodes, silver, Paris, circa 1900, inv. OAO1514-1; OAO1514-2.
• METROPOLITAN MUSEUM, NEW YORK, BOIVIN, Knife, silver, steel, Paris, 19th century, inv. 25.130.3.

[1] Paris, 1864-1917
[2] Built in 1739-1741 for Jean-Louis THIROUX DE LAILLY, farmer of the Post Office, this hotel will be occupied by the superintendent Nicolas FOUQUET and his second wife Marie-Madeleine de CASTILLE from 1651 to 1658. Some of its woodwork has been reassembled at Waddesdon Manor for the ROTSCHILD, while the courtyard, the facades and the first two flights of stairs have been listed as historic monuments since March 17, 1925.