Please help me identify silversmith of Jam container and its spoons

[elcid51]

Please help me identify silversmith (PB) of Jam container and silversmith (ALC) of teaspoons.
Thanks, Guido

[JayT]

Hello Guido
Happy New Year! Your jam jar (confiturier) was made in Paris by Pierre Bourguignon, general silversmith, working at 222 rue St-Honoré. His mark was Initials PB, symbols a carafe (un carafon) and a floweret (un fleuron). He registered this mark twice, in 1798, and 1803. He was received as a master silversmith for Paris on 27 May 1789, by letters patent. No end date is given, although he was mentioned in the Almanach Azur until 1816. See Arminjon, v. I, no. 02849, p. 284.

Bourguignon had a career under the Ancien Régime as well. Nocq tells us that he registered on 27 May 1789 with letters patent, sponsored by Henry Louis Dutry, and registered his mark on 17 June 1789, initials PB, symbol a holy spirit (un St-Esprit). At the beginning of his career he worked at cour Lamoignon until 1793, then moved to 222, rue St-Honoré. In 1795, at age 39 he married Jeanne-Catherine-Eléonore Dutry,
presumably his sponsor’s daughter. See Nocq, v. I, p. 176.

The spoons might not be original to the jam jar, but are definitely appropriate for time period, and form - length and shape. They were made in Paris of 950 standard silver in 1819-1838 as indicated by the silver standard mark of the head of Michelangelo facing right and a guarantee mark of a grotesque mask. The maker is Augustin-Louis Cottin, spoon maker (cuilleriste), initials ALC, symbol a spoon maker’s hammer (une masse de cuilleriste). Cottin worked in Paris at cour Lamoignon, at no. 8 then no. 7, the same street where Bourguignon worked until 1793. He registered his mark twice in 1810-1811, and 3 March 1826, erased 8 April 1828.

Hope this helps.

[JayT]

P.S. Normally the spoons with a jam jar are displayed bowl up, facing either in or out.

[elcid51]

Hi JayT,
Happy new Year to you too.
Many thanks you are always very precise and very courteous.
Thanks again,
Guido

[JayT]

My pleasure to help Guido. Thanks for your kind remarks.

[blakstone]

Pierre Joseph Bourguignon
Baptized: 30 Oct 1757, Dinant sur la Meuse, Namur, Belgium, son of Perpete Ignance Bourguignon & Marie Josephe Lelivre
Married: 1795, to Jeanne Catherine Eleonore Dutry, daughter of Antoine Dutry & Louise Eleonore Boulanger
Died: 18 Oct 1830, Paris

Augustin Louis Cottin
Born: ca. 1771, Paris, son of Augustin Claude Cottin & Marguerite Genevieve Brache
Married: 29 Sep 1795, Paris, to Catherine Marguerite Romaine Meunier
Died: 1 Feb 1831, Montreuil, Seine St. Denis

Bourguignon is listed in Paris directories until 1833; his company was continued after his death by his widow until her death on 11 Jun 1833. She was the sister, not the daughter, of Henri Louis Dutry, who was still alive at the time of her death; he was a declarant on her death certificate, aged 70 and living at 222 rue St. Honore with her. This suggests that he was working with Bourguignon in his shop. (I have not been able to find out when he died.)

I would be curious to see the other marks on the confiturier. Given that the working dates of Bourguignon and Cottin overlap, and that during some of that time they were working adjacent to one another, it is entirely possible (as JayT notes) that the spoons are original to the confiturier.