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950 Silver Tastevin...Unusual, Smaller Version
As featured in this issue's Memo from J-P...just 2 inches in diameter and 2.6875 inches wide, including the handle, this
sterling silver tastevin still manages to exhibit all the elegance of its
larger brethren.
Here's a comparison view...to give you an idea of how it compares
size-wise with a more "normal" tastevin.
Given its size, the attention to detail is
amazing. Grape clusters alternate with elegant godrons, held
by a serpent tail handle. Tastevins are essential to the production of any
good wine...at various steps in the intricate and ancient process, the
wine master must taste the wine in the deep, dark corners of the cave or
chai. The previous owner of this rare example used it for tasting
cognac...whether that was the original intent is anyone's guess...but it
certainly is unique!
Here's a view of the double-poinçoned bottom.
A first mark Minerve is on the handle...
...it dates from the turn of the twentieth century.
It is .675 of an inch
high, 950 grade silver and weighs 19 grams.
The poinçons on the bottom are another first Minerve and a makers' mark
that I can't quite make out. It's in excellent
condition...unfortunately these extreme close-up photographs tend to
accentuate the usage markings.
Elegant 950 Silver
Tastevin...Pre-Minerve
Since we showed you this tastevin in
the comparison photograph for the mini version above...we might as well
tell you about it as well!
It's a beauty...
...more normal in size...3 inch diameter bowl and 4 inch across the double
serpent handle. Swirls of godrons indicate its intention for
tasting white wine.
This photograph of the bottom also give you a view of the wonderful double
serpents...
It is .8125 of an inch high, weighs 68 grams, and has the rooster poinçon
for 950 grade silver and the date poinçon for 1809-1819. It has two
department marks...one from the Champagne region (Marne) and another from
Pas-de-Calais.
The monogram on the side reads L
M....
Condition is fantastic for a
tastevin that dates from 1809-1819.
Nineteenth Century Malicorne Pichet à Secret...Puzzle
Jug...Plat d'Etain
A traditional gag gift in
nineteenth century Brittany...to be given by the Best Man to the
Bridegroom...the form is known in French as a pichet à secret,
pichet trompeur, or a pot à surprise. The surprise is that when
the poor unsuspecting user tries to take a drink, they get a drenching
instead as the liquid pours out of the piercings instead of the spout!
Such puzzle jugs have been around since the middle ages and were popular
in eighteenth and nineteenth century taverns. By the end of the nineteenth
century, they had became a Malicorne specialty.
The mystery stems from all the
piercings...with all those holes, how is one able to drink from it?
It comes with a clue written on it...Buvez. je le veux bien. Mais
sachez placer votre main...rough translation: "Drink, I want you to...but
know where to put your hand."
Like
the clue indicates, the solution to the puzzle is knowing where to place
your hand.
It is unsigned which, as Stéphane
Deschang explains in his book on Malicorne faïence, is in keeping with a
Malicorne puzzle jug from the nineteenth century. (Page 152 of his book
shows an example of the same mold from the Plat d'Etain pottery).
With an elaborate shape consisting of raised bunches of grapes...
...including a spout in the form of a bunch of grapes...the piece has
colorful grape leaves, and a handle in the form of a grape vine. It
measures 6 inches across from spout to handle, 6.6875 inches high, and
3.75 inches deep. Condition wise...there is some crazing as well as areas
of glaze loss to two of the raised grape bunches and a small spot of
missing glaze on the side near the floral spray...nothing outrageous for a
piece of this vintage!
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