Salver

designer Carlo Bugatti (Italian, 1856–1940)

maker Adrien-Aurélien Hebrard (French, 1866–1937)

c. 1907

Medium
Gilt silver and ivory
Classification
Silver
Dimensions
Overall: 14.6 x 33 cm (5 3/4 x 13 in.)
Culture
France, Paris
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art, Decorative Art and Design
Credit line
Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund
Rights
Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
Who can see it
Tweens profiles and older: its subjects are known and suit older children. How works are placed

View at the Cleveland Museum of Art

About this work

This tea and coffee service, salver, and table, together with some now missing cups, were all designed by Carlo Bugatti as an ensemble and presented at the 1902 exposition devoted to decorative arts in Turin, Italy. The set was probably acquired from Bugatti's 1907 exhibition at the Galerie Hébrard in Paris by a wealthy South African widow, Anna Blake, who was living there at the time. Some of the animal and insect motifs suggest mythical beasts or the fossils of prehistoric animals. When Mrs. Blake returned to Cape Town, she took these and other pieces designed by Bugatti with her, and they remained in South Africa throughout her lifetime.