Pair of ewers; Paris, Tétard Frères, c. 1930

Pair of ewers; Paris, Tétard Frères, c. 1930
Gilded silver
Punched
Total weight: 2430 grams
Measurements: 24 x 22 x 13,5 cm.

Pair of ewers of the famous Parisian manufacture Tétard Frères, one of the most prestigious French goldsmith firms in the transition from the nineteenth to the twentieth century. Both pieces are executed in gilded silver, creating an elegant chromatic play.

The form responds to the vocabulary of the Empire style, the great style of representation that emerged in Napoleonic France in the early years of the 19th century under the aegis of the architects Percier and Fontaine, and whose influence on the decorative arts continued throughout the century. The truncated cone-shaped tank starts from a foot resting on a square base. The transition between the base and the tank is resolved by a frieze decorated with ovals. The lower third of the tank is ornamented with a band of leaves in relief; small flowers are interspersed between the leaves.

However, the element of greatest sculptural strength is the handle, resolved in the form of a swan with an arched neck and spread wings, an emblematic motif of the Empire style and one of the most recognizable signs of Napoleonic iconography.