Strawberry Serving Set for 12 Guests French Sterling Silver 1864

 This beautiful strawberry serving set is composed of one large serving large flat hand, one sugar spoon, 12 forks with 12 assorted spoons, on the top of each piece the pattern shows strawberry fruits and flowers, French sterling silver done by Christofle is partly gilded inside.

Second Empire was to be La Païva’s playground and from nothing, she became a legend powerful and ever richer. She has built the most incredible Hotel Particular on Champs Elysées which is the only one left with the most precious mid-19th century decoration. In her receiving room, the Marquise de Païva would receive all the most important men, emperor NIII, Industrial barons, royalties, artists and also writers such as Gustave Flaubert, Émile Zola, Alexandre Dumas.

"La Païva, as her contemporaries understood, was more than just a courtesan, but an archetypical figure of the European 19th century, when tectonic shifts in social organization saw the old order give way, and a new class of capitalists and Empire-builders set about remaking the world. Her waist was large, and her face was described by writers of the time as mannish. Yet La Païva had a Virtue greater than beauty, and more enduring too: steely, total ambition." By Jason Farago Discover Art Decoratif Paris museum book about this famous artwork