French silver teapot

[Smokanabeach]

Hi!

Back with a tea pot recently buy. Size is 27.5cm high and 13cm large. I've got no result finding the silversmith ("A.L E...?" "A.L ET CIE"? "A.L & CIE"? For me that doesn't match).

Moreover nothing about the period because of the special design of this teapot... Never see it before... Could it be a special oriental order? I let you judge about it...





Thanks for your help!

Ragards,

Don Smoka

[JayT]

Hi Don
The mark is so effaced that it is difficult to determine who made your item. Is there no other mark on the lid, for example?

The best I can do is Augustin-Victor Lebon, working at 68, Quai des Orfèvres from 11 November 1872 - 17 October 1885. The mark is A. Lebon on a horizontal axis with an Armenian bonnet below in an oval as the symbol. See Arminjon, v. II, p. 61, no. 00432. I'm really not confident in this attribution however.

Silver in the Orientalist style was very popular in mid-nineteenth century France to go along with rooms decorated with furniture, paintings, carpets, and other Orientalist objects. The biggest collector of orientalist silver, David Allan, in 2003 published a catalogue of his collection entitled French Orientalist Silver of the 19th Century. It is still available from your favourite online bookseller. Today this style has fallen out of favour with silver collectors, but does appear regularly on the market.

I'd call your item a coffee pot because of the placement of the spout at the bottom of the vessel.

Hope this helps a bit.

[Smokanabeach]

Thanks Jay T that could match with his armenian origin,isn't it? By the way, your conclusion as a coffee pot take all his sense, as armenian coffee is weel known as a special one!

[Smokanabeach]

And same for Turkish! Thanks a lot for your research!

P.S: After looking for a while, I don't find any other silversmith mark elsewhere...

[Smokanabeach]

See Arminjon, v. II, p. 61, no. 00432

=> What's the name of her book?

Regards,

Don Smoka

[JayT]

Hello again
To clarify:
-Your coffee pot was made in France, as seen by the Minerva head mark on the neck in photo#2.
-IF the coffee pot was made in Paris, then the maker MIGHT be A. Lebon as detailed in my first response, but the mark is too partial to be certain. A. Lebon used as his symbol an Armenian bonnet. To my knowledge he was not of Armenian origin, and the maker's symbol had nothing to do with the form of the object.
-The coffee pot is in the Orientalist style, a fad in French mid-nineteenth century decorative and fine arts.
-The main reference for Paris makers' marks of the nineteenth century is: Arminjon, C. and others. Dictionnaire des poinçons de fabricants d'ouvrages d'or et d'argent de Paris et de la Seine. This 2-volume work is out of print, but can be found on the secondary market for a very high price.

[blakstone]

A little information on Augustin Victor Lebon:

Born: 27 Apr 1831, Montmartre, Paris, 18e arrondissement, son of Jean Henri Lebon, tailor, and Caroline Genny Mercier
Baptized: 28 Apr 1831, St. Pierre de Montmartre, Paris
Married: 11 Apr 1853, Paris, to Heloise Georgette Demart
Died: 14 Jun 1889, Champagne-sur-Marne, Val-de-Marne

His death was attested by his son, George Jean Lebon (b. 27 Feb 1859), who was an engraver in Paris.