KRAEMER GALLERY WORKS OF ART
Rare régence-louis XV period rocaille silvered bronze table centerpiece
50 cm. High = 19 ¾ inches
39 cm. Wide = 15 ¼ inches
52 cm. Deep = 20 ¼ inches
Usual restorations and maintenance
Bibliography:
– KRIKORIAN Sandrine, « Les surtouts de table au XVIIIe siècle : un langage visuel artistique et patriotique »,
Langages et communication : écrits, images, sons, Paris, 2017, pp. 191-197.
– MABILLE Gérard, « Les surtouts de table dans l’art français du XVIIIe siècle », L’estampille, n°126, October. 1980, p. 69.
This silvered bronze table centerpiece consists of a tray bordered with moldings and resting on four arched legs adorned with scrollwork. It features four removable candle arms.
At the center of the tray, a raised motif with borders echoes the curves of the tray’s supports and includes four volute-shaped feet decorated with plant motifs, which support a lidded cup adorned with an acanthus motif. Four additional candle arms extend from the four legs supporting the cup.
The Table Centerpiece:
The word “table centerpiece” (“surtout de table”) first appeared in royal inventories at the end of the 17th century. Initially, it referred to a collection of essential utensils stored in one or more chests for serving a quick meal. It was only in the final years of the seventeenth century that the term came to designate an ornamental object, made of silver, bronze, earthenware, or porcelain, originally designed to hold items such as a cruet, vinegarjar, or saltcellar.
This object is closely associated with the tradition of service à la française, in which the table is set and cleared with each course during a meal. Only spices and herbs remained on the table throughout the service.
While most table centerpieces gradually lost their functional purpose during the first half of the 18th century, this example, with its cut-out forms and plant-inspired ornamentation, characteristic of the decorative vocabulary of the period, has preserved its practical use as a source of illumination, thanks to its system of removable candle arms.
