Deep dish CGT Normandie art deco silver plated

The liner Normandie inaugurated in 1932 was decorated by the most famous artists of the time whose masterpieces are now in museums or private collections.

"The pieces of silverware created for Normandie have that robust, slightly massive solidity that characterises current taste, leaving the decorative role to the elegance of the contours and the balance of the volumes. Details such as handles, spouts, handles and mouldings give the piece scale and contrast with the large surfaces of burnished silver. The pure geometric simplicity of the Compagnie monogram is striking on the cutlery and vegetable dish reproduced here.

Normandy's output of Christofle silverware is, as you would expect, considerable. More than 18,000 pieces of cutlery and 5,000 knives were planned for the meals served in the immense floating palace; 2,000 dishes of different shapes and sizes would be used to serve the dishes presented to the guests, while three rolling tables would be used to transport the large pieces of roast meat.

To these quantities must be added 1,000 trays, 1,500 tea and coffee sets and a multitude of tureens, vegetable dishes, sauce boats, ice buckets and other accessories that elegance and convenience require for the tasting of numerous hors-d'oeuvres, entremets or dishes.

In all, there are almost 45,000 pieces of Christofle silverware, a figure that we leave to the dreams of the housewives."

Translate and extract from the Paris Match catalogue n°663, Spécial France, 1961.