Louis XVI Vegetable Dish, Paris 1783, Dénis Franckson, Oille Pot, Sterling Silver

Lovely vegetable dish or "pot à Oille" from the Louis XVI period in solid silver. It bears the hallmark of the goldsmith Denis Franckson and the Parisian hallmarks for the year 1783. Quite large in size for a vegetable dish, it is rather to be cataloged as a "pot à oille" or a small soup tureen. Larger than a vegetable dish, one would be tempted to classify it as a soup tureen, but its round shape and domed body point rather in the direction of this récipient called a "pot à oille ". These round-shaped silver récipients take up in a refined way the shapes of the pottery containers that were simmered in the wood fire in the kitchens from the end of the seventeenth to the beginning of the nineteenth century. La oille or ouille is a word derived from the Spanish "olla" which simply means "pot". This dish could consist of different meats and various vegetables or herbs but always designated a preparation of meat in sauce. Madame de Sévigné preferred her oille with bitter chicory and meats. She advised not to leave it on the stove for too long. One often quotes, as starting point of the popularity of this preparation of Iberian origin, the arrival in France of the queen Marie-Therese, wife of Louis XIV.
The handles of this spécimen are designed in intertwined branches and its lid is topped with a sumptuous fretel in the shape of a garnet surrounded by foliage. Denis Franckson proves to us here that he is a master goldsmith of great virtuosity at the peak of his art.
The whole weighs 1030 grams.