Suger Spoon, Nicolas Collier, Paris 1769. Spoon Published In Gruber 1982

SUGAR SPOON or SAUPOUDREUSE
Solid silver (~ 958/1000)
Goldsmith Nicolas Collier (1733 -> 1793), master in 1766
Louis XV period
Paris, 1769-1770
Length: 21 cm
Weight: 98 g
Former Alain Gruber collection, former curator from the Silver Department at the Swiss National Museum
Our spoon is published in his work devoted to civil goldsmithing from the 16th to the 19th [Gruber, p.214, n ° 305].
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Hallmark of master
Fleur de lys crowned, two seeds of remedy, NC, a rooster for Nicolas Collier [Nocq I p.286 & Dennis II p.53 n ° 102a].
Nicolas Collier was born in Versailles in 1733. Backed by the great cuillériste Nicolas Martin Langlois, he was accepted as a master in 1766. Nicolas Collier became a specialist in "simple and robust" cutlery [Nocq] under the sign "With the arms of Condé" , rue Dauphine, where the tables mention it until 1793.
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Regulatory marks for Paris, from October 1, 1768 to November 18, 1774, Régie de Julien Alaterre
- Poinçon de charge for large works silver (A crowned and flowered A) [Bimbenet-Privat n ° 465, p.144 & Dennis II n ° 102c, p.53];
- Discharge mark for gold & small pieces of silver (helmeted head in profile looking to the right) [Bimbenet-Privat n ° 468, p.144 & Dennis II n ° 102e, p.53];
- Hallmark of jurande insculpé from July 12, 1769 to July 16, 1770 (crowned F) [Bimbenet-Privat n ° 480, p.145 & Dennis II n ° 102b, p.53]
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Posterior hallmark
- Weevil hallmark, inscribed from 1864 to 1893 on gold and silver articles imported from countries bound by trade treaties with France [Beuque I p.88 No. 781]. This hallmark, which guaranteed the minimum legal title [800/1000], bears here as different the capital P of the Pontarlier (Doubs) Guarantee Office, created on March 29, 1865 [Beuque I p.283 n ° 2504].
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Coat of arms
In an oval shield (traditionally called lady's shield) and foliage, surmounted by a count's crown:
Gules, with the golden cross
These arms can refer to the House of Allinges, originally from Chablais.
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Alain Gruber
Alain Gruber was born in Delémont in 1943 and died in Friborg in 2020. This great traveler with a multifaceted career was curator of silverware at the Swiss National Museum, director of the Abegg Foundation in Riggisberg (BE), university teacher in Friborg and New York, cultural manager at Christie's Geneva, London and New York. His exceptional knowledge of the decorative arts led him to prestigious missions such as the redevelopment of the Rothschild family mansion in Waddesdon near London [online notice on the Canton of Jura website].
Its very large working library devoted to decorative arts was donated to the Jura cantonal library.

Our spoon is published in his work devoted to civil goldsmithing from the 16th to the 19th [Gruber, p.214, n ° 305].
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References
- Emile Beuque, Dictionnaire des poinçons, volume I, by Nobele, Paris 1962
- Michèle Bimbenet-Privat and Gabriel de Fontaines, The dating of Parisian goldsmiths under the Ancien Régime, Paris-Museums 1995
- Faith Dennis, Three Centuries of French Domestic Silver, tomes I & II, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York 1960
- Alain Gruber, Gebrauchssilber des 16. bis 19. Jahrhunderts, Office du Livre, Friborg 1982
- Henry Nocq, Le poinçon de Paris, volume I, Léonce Laget, Paris 1968