Empire Silver Cruet By Biennais

Silver cruet, by Biennais, Empire period.
Classic model inspired by a drawing by Percier. We find the same winged caryatids on the butter dishes of the service of Napoleon and Marie-Louise.
Note also: the original cruets, famous model "pear cord 2 spouts".
Punches:
Paris 1st title, 1809-1819.
Average Guarantee.
Association of Parisian Silversmiths.
Master silversmith: Martin-Guillaume Biennais, got his punch in 1801.

Martin-Guillaume Biennais (1764-1843). He moved to Paris at a very young age and bought a fund for a gift shop of Widow Anciaux. He got his master "tabletier" on September 12, 1789.
1790 he bought a second business at 283 rue Saint-Honoré, the famous brand "Au Singe Violet". His fame is immediate and dazzling. His house receives a large and varied clientele, among which a young general who will make his way: Bonaparte. The legend relates that Biennais sells him on credit, in 1796, a necessary of travel which it carries for the campaign of Egypt. With its success, Biennais founded its own goldsmiths' factory. From 1804, he executed all the goldsmithery of the House of the Emperor. It is Biennais who is responsible for executing the insignia of the coronation ceremony (December 2, 1804): the sword, the laurel wreath, the Great Necklace of the Legion of Honor, the Great Scepter, the Ball of the World and the Hand of Justice. Biennais will also be supplier to Russian Tsar Alexander I and his brother, Grand Duke Michel. In 1821, Biennais abruptly decides to leave the business, he passes his hand to one of his principal collaborators Jean-Charles Cahier. Lancelot Théodore Turpin de Crissé (1782-1859), after being taken in charge by the Count Choiseul-Gouffier, is chamberlain and lover of the Empress Josephine from 1810 to 1814. He entered the Academy of Fine Arts in 1816 , is appointed a member of the Commission of Fine Arts at the Prefecture of the Seine and holds important positions in the arts administration under the Restoration until being appointed in 1825 Inspector General of Fine Arts by Charles X. After 1830, loyal to the Bourbons, he resigned from all his functions and devoted himself to painting and his collection of antiques he bequeathed to the city of Angers. Without any academic training, he exhibited at the Salon from 1806 to 1835 composed landscapes and views of Italy. He publishes three albums of Souvenirs lithographs of the Gulf of Naples, Lithographic fantasies, Memories of old Paris.