I Got a Box of Coin Silver and High End French Plate From My Partner Pt 2 - The Baguette Form
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 13 ก.ย. 2024
- I find authentic early 20th century baguette form silver plate flatware. You can still buy it from Christofle, who currently calls this pattern "FIDÉLIO." I have never really seen much French silver plate, and it was really cool to look up the different companies.
I forgot to mention in the video that the form became famous because of their use in Parisian cafes. Note that because it got famous, multiple companies made flatware using the form, so even though all the flatware looks almost exactly the same, I assume that the valuations differ wildly, depending on the maker. Half of the makers became incredibly famous and successful, and half of them have almost no literature or surviving pieces, which if you assume these pieces were made at around the same time, is incredibly interesting, as this gives us a window into the failure rates of silver and silver plating companies. Let me know if you agree with my overall assessment.
I also don't quite know what to classify this pattern as. I think it has hints of Art Deco in it, like some kind of prototype deco style? I could date some of these pieces to 1902 and 1903, and real art deco movement doesn't start until the 1920s. We were still in peak Art Nouveau over there in France, and baguette looks almost nothing like Art Nouveau.
Online sources state that Chrisftofle first started making baguette style flatware circa 1860 (in real silver, mind you), so the pattern was clearly able to survive the Art Nouveau movement. Could baguette be considered an impressionist inspired pattern? Electroplating was in its infancy back then.
I'm completely flying blind here! I decided on paying my friend a $2 per piece finder fee plus 50-50 profit split. I think that's fair. The problem is that I didn't really have much data to go off of regarding prices and demand for these pieces.
Just a small complaint, it was really annoying having to strain my eyes and squint so much in order to see the makers. It's such a weird design choice on the French silver maker's parts. Maybe French people have really good eyes?
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Hi GMG, nice find and an enjoyable watch. Indeed this "Baguette" pattern came into being around the mid-19th century. I have a Christofle catalog from 1862 which shows it already. In fact, pretty much every French silversmith had this pattern (same as the "Filet" - or Chinon - pattern). The reasons I think are not that hard to deduce. It is undecorated, so a mould is easier to make. It requires less polishing, given that it doesnt have any crevices, so it polishes easier. This would have made it populair for large orders by restaurants and cafe's, as you mentioned. It definately pre-dates the modern art movements and in a way is the antithesis to those: mass-produced and undecorated.
All catalog's by all makers classify this pattern as "Uni" or "smooth/undecorated/general", the cheapest patterns as the cost of production would also have been less than exquisite Rococo patterns. This also explains how widespread it is. The pattern was also popular in Belgium and the Netherlands, and I often find it there. In fact it's pretty hard to dodge over here. I've found a ton of them with inscriptions of restaurants and hotels (confirming also your point about the cafe's).
One point of interest is the disparity in quality. Baguette pieces are seriously both among the most elegant pieces there are, if done right, and among the most shoddy pieces of work out there. Sadly though, they are also among the most heavily used pieces and I often encounter them overpolished and with silver loss. Great find. I could share some catalog data if you'd like.
I love the way you pointed out what now is obvious now that you mention it, that a mass-producible and simple (but I still believe kind of elegant) pattern would be the antithesis of the art movements.
I wonder how a critic contemporary to late 19th century Paris would have received these pieces... From what we have discussed, not well, I would imagine.
@@gmgssilverplatethat's an interesting question. From a designer point of view, he would definately find it old-fashioned and in need of some "modernity". However, I hope it would have been obvious even to a critic that the French art nouveau style was way more expensive to create and the style wouldn't have been loved by all. The Nouveau movement remained a bourgeosie thing at the end of the day. It would not have been feasible to equip the whole of Paris with nouveau cutlery, it was simply too expensive. I hope the ceitics would have understood the neccessity for a common pattern and would have been able to appreciate Baguette's elegant simplicity in that light
Yep, well said, there's a reason why it fits so well in today's homes, and survives and is still popular to this day, it definitely looks like a design that would have been developed and loved in the 1960s and did well in suburban homes.
The wealthier French certainly could be snobbish, but back then they didn't have social media as an outlet. They probably kept their opinions like that to themselves, or more likely had more important things to think about.
One more thing, would absolutely love to see your ephemera. If it makes it easier, you could always post it on my reddit forum r/silverplate.