www.925-1000.com

Hi,

Please embed your images, as very few members will click on links.

https://postimages.org (choose 'Share', then copy the 'Hotlink for forums' code) is recommended.

Trev.

Thanks Trev!

Hello
Your individual serving pot - called an égoïste - is either for coffee, or if the top of the finial swivels open to accommodate a muddler, a chocolate pot. Both coffee and chocolate pots had a side handle.
Your pot is 18th C French provincial silver from Orléans, as seen by the crowned R charge mark is use 1768/74, and the crowned I date letter mark for 1773. You don’t show a discharge mark. It might be found along the rim. The other mark is an incomplete maker’s mark. Perhaps someone on the forum with good experience with Orléans silver can identify the maker for you.
Hope this helps.

Regards

See Tardy, p. 166.

Hello again.
I was a bit lazy, but now have consulted my resource on Orléans silver.
This resource doesn’t agree with Tardy about the crowned I date letter. It gives 1772 as the date rather than 1773.
I believe the maker of your pot was Étienne Tremblay, based on the symbol of an open lily - “coeur de lis.”
Tremblay (1733-ca.1807) registered his mark 22 December 1757. He was the son of Laurent Tremblay, also a silversmith at Vendôme, and Anne Guillon. There is a long entry regarding Tremblay in the main resource on Orléans silver.

See: Musée des beaux-arts de la ville d’Orléans. Les orfèvres d’Orléans. Paris, Somogy Éditions d’Art, 2003. p. 68, and pp. 112-113.

Thank you so much!! That's very helpful, had no idea it could be for coffee as well. Thanks for sharing your knowledge!

My pleasure.

I wanted to add that Beuque lists the makers mark as #477 "E.T., Courounnées, Trois Cailloux, Poincoin employé, en 1768-1774, par un maitre-orfèvre d'Orléans (Loiret)". So they say it's three pebbles and not an open lilly, but who knows :)

There always will be a battle of experts, but Beuque is outdated by now. The reference by the museum is more recent and scholarly, so gets my vote for credibility.
Regards.

The "coeur de Lys" is in the coat of arms of the city of Orléans. That's why it was used by the silversmiths in their marks. It is sometimes simplified in three pebbles, but here in the mark of Etienne Tremblay, we can actually see a "coeur de lys". You can see it also under the "I".