Cleveland Museum of Art

Covered Tureen on Stand (Pot à oille)

Henry Auguste

Date

1797–98

Medium

silver

Culture

France, late 18th-early 19th Century

Department

Decorative Art and Design

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

This pot-à-oille was designed by master goldsmith Henri Auguste after drawings by draftsman and sculptor Jean Guillaume Moitte. Though many of the neoclassical decorative elements on this piece are pulled from Moitte’s design, Auguste’s final product leaves out much of the proposed ornamentation. Instead this object finds distinction in its large size and smooth expanses of silver that emphasize the purity of its lines. The coat of arms on the body of the work corresponds to the family of Federico Carlos Gravina, a Sicilian-Spanish admiral who was known to have had a close diplomatic relationship with Napoleon I.

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