Amsterdam 1782, Serving Spoons, Barons Constant De Rebecq, Sterling Silver, Salad Cutlery

Very rare and very interesting Louis XVI period salad serving cutlery. These are in fact two stew spoons, one of which was transformed during the first half of the nineteenth century to serve as a salad serving fork. The hallmarks for the silver of the first alloy found on this cutlery are those of the city of Amsterdam for the year 1782 as well as the master goldsmith's hallmark of Roelof Helweg, probably the Amsterdam goldsmith with the longest career, six decades! The coat of arms engraved on the cutlery make it even more interesting. This is the full coat of arms of the barons Constant de Rebecq (de Villars for some). Their motto "in arduis constans", tenacious in (despite) adversity, is quite typical for a Protestant family of this period. This family of Artois origin emigrated during the seventeenth century to Switzerland where David Constant de Rebecq (1638-1733) taught rhetoric and then theology at the University of Lausanne. His son and three grandsons left the academic path to devote themselves, like many Swiss at that time, to a military career in the service of foreign sovereigns such as the King of France, the Pope or in the case of the Constant de Rebecq, the Prince of Orange, the leader  of the Netherlands. They nevertheless kept a strong link with their Swiss homeland and Samuel (1729-1800) formed a deep friendship with Voltaire and married on his advice the philosopher's little neighbor, Charlotte Pictet. Raised by her parents, Charlotte was intelligent, cultured and witty. Although her spelling was unstable, she knew how to write and had a beautiful pen. She maintained a correspondence with her husband, Samuel, from 1757 to 1764, consisting of 76 letters, the transcription of which is the subject of the work A Passionate Love Under the Eyes of Voltaire: Seventy-Six Letters from Charlotte Pictet to Her Husband, Samuel Constant de Rebecque (1755-1764). Throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, members of the Constant de Rebecq family held high military positions in the Netherlands as well as the position of King's Chamberlain. This cutlery is in good condition and weighs 280 grams.