Beaker
Probably Nicolas Gonthier
Not on view
Bell or tulip-shaped beakers became the dominant form used throughout France in the first half of the eighteenth century. This beaker may have been a component of a dressing table set but equally could have been part of a set of cutlery and other dining implements to be used when the owner was traveling.
Although it remains difficult to establish exactly what beverages would be taken in silver beakers of this period, the applied decoration of this example – bunches of grapes alternating with wheat sheaves – is likely an indication that it held wine or beer. The rapid development of ceramic manufacturing in the eighteenth century as well as the vast imports from China led to the replacements of silver drinking vessels by porcelain as well as glass.
This beaker was part of the collection of silver bequeathed to the museum in 1948 by Catherine D. Wentworth (1865-1948). Mrs. Wentworth was the daughter of one of the founders of the Weyerhaeuser Timber Company. She was an art student and painter who lived in France for thirty years and one of the most important American collectors of eighteen-century French silver. Part of her significant holdings, which included snuffboxes, French furniture, and textiles as well, were left to the Metropolitan Museum. The collection is particularly strong in domestic silver, much of it provincial, and includes a number of rare early pieces.
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