Set of Salt Spoons (10)
1789–1820
Medium
Silver gilt
Dimensions
H.: 11.7 cm (4 5/8 in.)
Classification
silver
Department
Applied Arts of Europe
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
25197
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
These salt spoons are part of a vast service made for Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte’s sister Pauline on the occasion of her marriage to the Roman nobleman Camillo Borghese, Sixth Prince of Sulmona. In the years after the French Revolution, architects and designers adopted the visual language of ancient Greece and Rome to express the new imperial order. Napoleon, hoping to promote Paris’s luxury trades, commissioned several silver dinner services as gifts to be sent abroad.
About the Artist
Martin-Guillaume Biennais · 1764–1843
Martin-Guillaume Biennais (1764–1843) was the most celebrated goldsmith and silversmith of the Napoleonic era, a craftsman whose work in precious metals became synonymous with the taste and grandeur of the First Empire. Beginning his career as a toy-maker and lacquer merchant, he made the remarkable transition to goldsmithing in the 1790s, establishing himself in Paris and rapidly attracting the p...