Footnotes

• A table set and ready for dinner three hundred years ago had no centerpiece but extended flat and unbroken without candles, decoration or drinking vessels....Early in the eighteenth century, instead of filling the center with a quartet of flat dishes holding ordinary meats, a hostess raised the center dish above the rest so that it would stand out in the manner of a fountain raising among the balanced and evenly spaced beds of a baroque garden.... The term "epergne" is derived from the French, meaning saving or economy... The 18th and early 19th century hostess' use of epergnes filled with fruits and sweetmeats, epitomized the society that produced them - dedicated on one hand to being insouciant and charming and on the other to plumbing the secrets of nature and devoted not only to beauty but also utility. (Source: Louise Conway Belden, The Festive Tradition, A Winterthur Book, W. W. Norton & Co., New York, 1983, pp 41 and 67).

---

Category: Decorative Arts / Silver

---

Auction terms and conditions