Ath 1764, 10 Dessert Spoons & 10 Désert Forks, Sterling Silver, Jean Louis Philippront

Splendid set of ten Louis XV dessert cutlery with the hallmark of the city of Ath, the hallmark of the year 1764 and the hallmark of the master silversmith Jean Louis Philippront. On the side of some we can also see "a striche" or zigzag trace of the silver taken by the assayer of the eighteenth century. Jean Louis Philippront is without a doubt the most important Ath goldsmith of the second half of the eighteenth century. Unlike most of his colleagues who struggle to survive thanks to the manufacture of "minutiae" (shoe buckles and small boxes and snuff boxes), JLPhilippront produces sumptuous silverware of very high quality. He began his career in 1752 and worked until the mid-1780s. His works in the Louis XV style are very successful. But it was when he began to create Louis XVI style objects that he demonstrated true virtuosity and sometimes even a touch of humor, since one day I discovered a coffee pot made by him where he had made the spout in the shape of an immense tubular brick chimney, as there were everywhere in Hainaut at the beginning of the industrial revolution. The extremely rare dessert cutlery that I am presenting to you today clearly demonstrate this virtuosity of the goldsmith in its finesse of execution and the abundance of this decoration with the extremely rare shell pattern . 99% of Belgian cutlery production in the eighteenth century consisted of plain cutlery. In addition, dessert cutlery is twenty times rarer than table cutlery. This set is therefore a real rarity in several respects. There are ten forks and ten spoons, all engraved with the initials JBD, a period engraving. The set weighs 900 grams.