{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O377039"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O377039/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2011EW7044/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2011EW7044/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2011EW7044","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2009CD7983","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2018KR7201","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2018KY5634","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O377039/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O377039","accessionNumber":"M.65:1-1933","objectType":"Écuelle","titles":[],"summaryDescription":"The écuelle is a lidded, shallow, bowl with two flat handles (for gripping between finger and thumb). This design made it particularly suitable as a vessel to contain soups and broths. As its French name suggests, it was a form of vessel more popular in France (and also in Germany) than in England. A late-sixteenth-century French engraving depicts a family at table who are about to use shallow, flat-handled (but lidless) écuelles on plates (Robert Boissart, <u>Concordia</u>, ca. 1590). The fact that the sick or bedridden required nourishing meat soup or broth meant the écuelle was also used away from the dining table, but illness was not always the reason for its appearance in the bedroom. The wealthy rose late in the eighteenth century, and while they were groomed and dressed they also breakfasted -- perhaps in the company of select guests. Their morning meal included broth served in an écuelle, which may also have been set on a plate. The plate served as a stand for the bowl, rather than as a dish for serving food. The crowned 'AS' monogram on the side of this bowl and on the lid is that of Princess Augusta Sophia, daughter of George III, who owned it some time between 1830 and 1840.","physicalDescription":"Silver-gilt. The bowl plain, the handles, which are separately made, have a scrolling outline and are pierced with crescent-shaped and other motifs. The swelling lid is cast and chased with a circular pattern of swirling acanthus foliage; its border is decorated with a flowing zig-zag in relief. The handle of the lid is in the form of a serpent.","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Delahaye, Jean","id":"A36202"},"association":{"text":"maker","id":"x40240"},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"silver","id":"AAT11029"},{"text":"gold","id":"AAT11021"}],"techniques":[{"text":"gilding","id":"x39207"},{"text":"raising","id":"AAT237068"},{"text":"casting","id":"AAT53104"},{"text":"piercing","id":"AAT231153"},{"text":"chasing","id":"AAT54016"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Silver, gilding, chasing, casting, raising, piercing","categories":[{"text":"Metalwork","id":"THES48920"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"MET","id":"THES48599"},"images":["2011EW7044","2009CD7983","2018KR7201","2018KY5634"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"004","id":"THES404443"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"004","id":"THES404443"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"écuelle","id":""}],[{"text":"lid","id":""}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""},{"apprise":"","note":""},{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"Paris","id":"x29068"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"1672-73","earliest":"1672-01-01","latest":"1673-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"Bequeathed by Major Thomas Sutton Timmis","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Width","value":"28.5","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"width of bowl including handles","note":""},{"dimension":"Diameter","value":"17.7","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"diameter of bowl without handles","note":""},{"dimension":"Height","value":"8.4","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"maximum height including lid","note":""},{"dimension":"Diameter","value":"18.5","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"diameter of lid","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"Taken from Lightbown (1978).","marksAndInscriptions":[{"content":"Monogram IDL with a hedge beneath it","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"","medium":"","method":"","position":"","script":"","translation":"","transliteration":"","type":"","note":"Maker's mark for Jean Delahaye (the motif of a hedge [French 'haie'] is a pun on his surname, literally 'of the hedge'). His mark appears on the base of the bowl and on its two handles."},{"content":"A crowned letter 'D'","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"","medium":"","method":"","position":"","script":"","translation":"","transliteration":"","type":"","note":"This represents the mark of Vincent Fortier, one of the wardens of the Paris goldsmiths' guild for 1672 (see Bimbenet-Privat and de Fontaines: 1995, plate 191). It is stamped on the base of the bowl."},{"content":"A crowned 'A' with 3 fleur-de-lis.","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"","medium":"","method":"","position":"","script":"","translation":"","transliteration":"","type":"","note":"This represents the duty mark for the silver(showing tax had been paid), introduced on 12 October 1672. The mark is stamped on the base of the bowl and inside the lid."},{"content":"The initials 'AS' surmounted by a royal crown.","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"","medium":"","method":"","position":"","script":"","translation":"","transliteration":"","type":"","note":"The monogram of Princess Augusta Sophia (1768-1840; this monogram used between c.1830-40). Daughter of King George III. Her monogram is engraved on the side of the bowl and on the upper surface of the lid."},{"content":"Initials 'E.A.Fs'","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"","medium":"","method":"","position":"","script":"","translation":"","transliteration":"","type":"","note":"Engraved on the base of the bowl and on the underside of the border of the lid. Correspond to an unidentified, probably 18th c, owner."}],"objectHistory":"Two different sets of engraved initials on the bowl and lid testify to different owners. The identity of the owner with the earlier set of initials --  'E.A.Fs' -- is obscure, but the crowned 'AS' monogram is that of Princess Augusta Sophia, daughter of George III. The écuelle was stated to have been one of the Cumberland heirlooms (Lightbown: 1978, cat. no. 39). The present gilding probably dates from the early 19th century. It was bequeathed to the Museum in 1933 by Major Thomas Sutton Timmis.\nThis is a finely-wrought and well-preserved example of a type of vessel popular in eighteenth-century France. The snake motif on the handle was also popular, and appears on other pieces of French silver as well as on English imitations. The handles of two late- seventeenth-century écuelles made in Paris (and now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York) have lids with a similar snake handle. One of these, dated 1670-71, is part of a toilet service commissioned for William of Orange and Mary, Princess of England. (See Dennis (1960), I, cat. no. 350). Another, similar bowl with a lid decorated with leaf pattern and a snake-handled motif, from around 1750-1800, is in the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris (see Mabille: 1984, cat. no. 275). For English imitations of the snake motif see the shallow lidded sugar bowl marked for 1683-4 in the V&A (Museum no. 53-1865).\r\nThe écuelle discussed here, by Jean Delahaye, is also of interest because among its marks is an early instance of a duty mark. For duty (and wardens') marks on French silver, see Dennis (1960), II, pp. 14-22, and Bimbenet-Privat and de Fontaines (1995). Jean Delahaye became a master goldsmith and was admitted to the Paris goldsmiths' guild in 1621 (see letter from Michelle Bimbenet-Privat dated 21 June 1993, in object folder in Metalwork Section files).","historicalContext":"The écuelle is a lidded, shallow, bowl with two flat handles (for gripping between finger and thumb). This design made it particularly suitable as a vessel to contain soups and broths. As its French name suggests, it was a form of vessel more popular in France (and also in Germany) than in England. A late-sixteenth-century French engraving depicts a family at table who are about to use shallow, flat-handled (but lidless) écuelles on plates (Robert Boissart, <u>Concordia</u>, ca. 1590). The fact that the sick or bedridden required nourishing meat soup or broth meant the écuelle was also used away from the dining table, but illness was not always the reason for its appearance in the bedroom. The wealthy rose late in the eighteenth century, and while they were groomed and dressed they also breakfasted -- perhaps in the company of select guests. Their morning meal included broth served in an écuelle, which may also have been set on a plate. The plate served as a stand for the bowl, rather than as a dish for serving food. (For an image of a 1755-7 Augsburg toilet service by Gottlieb Satzger and Johann Georg Kloss, which includes in its centre an écuelle, see Gruber (1982), pl. 385 [opposite p. 262.])","briefDescription":"Silver-gilt, France (Paris), 1672-73, mark of Jean Delahaye","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Lightbown, R. W. <u>Victoria and Albert Museum Catalogues: French Silver </u>. London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office, 1978. ISBN 0112902502*"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Gruber, Alain. <u>Silverware</u> (English translation of <u>L'Argenterie de maison du XVIe au XIXe siècle</u>). New York: Rizzoli International Publications, 1982. ISBN 0847804402"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Clayton, Michael. <u>The Collector's Dictionary of the Silver and Gold of Great Britain and North America</u>, 2nd edn., revised. Woodbridge, Suffolk: Antique Collectors' Club, 1985. ISBN 090746257X"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Dennis, Faith. <u>The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Three Centuries of French Domestic Silver, Its Makers and its Marks</u>. 2 vols. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1960."},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Mabille, Gérard. <u>Orfèvrerie française des XVIe, XVIIe, XVIIIe siècles. Catalogue raisonné des collections du Musée des Arts Décoratifs et du Musée Nissim de Camondo</u>. Paris: Flammarion / Musée des Arts Décoratifs, 1984. ISBN: 208012028X"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Bimbenet-Privat, Michèle and Gabriel de Fontaines. <u>La Datation de l'Orfèvrerie parisienne sous l'ancien régime: poinçons de Jurande et poinçons de la Marque 1507-1792</u>. Paris: Editions des Musées de la Ville de Paris, 1995. ISBN 2879002591"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Schroder, Timothy. <u>British and Continental gold and Silver in the Ashmolean Museum</u>. 3 vols. Oxford: Ashmolean Museum, 2009. ISBN: 978-1-85444-220-8"}],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["M.65:1-1933","M.65:2-1933"],"accessionNumberNum":"65","accessionNumberPrefix":"M","accessionYear":1933,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE","écuelle","lid"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2025-05-23","recordCreationDate":"2009-06-24","availableToBook":true}}