The doucine lid is topped by a frétel formed by a swan in a conch shell seeming to look with curiosity at the lion in the socket.
Complete with its crystal lining, probably from Le Creusot, former Manufacture Royale des Cristaux et Émaux de la Reine Marie-Antoinette and future manufacture of BACCARAT.
It includes 12 vermeil spoons finely chased with acanthus leaves on a guilloche background by the goldsmith Joseph HEUREUX.
Marks - on the lid, base and body -
• "2e coq 1er titre" (mark used for solid silver 950/1000 in Paris between 1809 and 1819),
• Guarantee for Paris.
• Hallmark of the Association of Goldsmiths (letter P on the left)
• Master goldsmith: "MH une nacelle" for Ambroise MIGNEROT.
Spoons
• "Vieillard 2e titre Paris,
• Guarantee for Paris,
• Mastergoldsmith: "JH une mitre d'évèque" for Joseph HEUREUX, goldsmith and spoon-maker in Paris.
Silver weight 823 gr.
French Consulat or Empire period.
Ambroise MIGNEROT was a Parisian silversmith who worked between 1810 and 1818 at 62 rue du Temple.
Ambroise MIGNEROT made a pair of stirrups for Napoleon I's coronation procession, which are kept at the MUSÉE DU LOUVRE in Paris.
The Boijmans Van Beuningen Museum in Rotterdam (NL) holds a pair of silver saltcellars by MIGNEROT.