"Restoration Silver Coffee Maker"
Silver coffee maker Restoration punch with the Old Man (1819/1838) on three shell feet, curious decoration of African figures surrounded by palms and moldboard with ostrich head H. 30 cm. Small depression on the paunch (see photos) and a drop of filler metal behind the foot but I can not judge if it is a repair or a small original defect. The model is elegant and finely chiseled. The very original decoration of African figures and ostrich head evokes, in my opinion, the slave trade of Africa and the triangular trade having enriched many shipowners from Nantes or Bordeaux in the 18th century but also in the 19th. Slavery abolished after the Revolution was restored by Napoleon in 1802 and it was not until 1848 that it was finally abolished. And would this coffee maker not be a testament to the casualness with which we dealt with the question in 1819/1838? Unless it is only a simple exotic fantasy of the goldsmith. Weight 575.4 grams