A LOUIS XVI PARCEL-GILT SILVER EWER

Antoine Boullier was one of the leading silversmiths working in the late 18th century. Like François-Thomas Germain, Jacques-Nicolas Roettiers, Louis Lenhendrick and Robert Joseph Auguste he was held in high esteem by his contemporaries and was commissioned to execute part of a large dinner-service for Catherine the Great, a tureen from which is on view at the Hermitage. Further examples of his work include part of the dinner-service made with Robert-Joseph Auguste for Count Creutz, now part of the Swedish Royal Collection and a dressing-table service made for Vladimir Borosovitch, General Prince Galitzin and his wife Natalya Petrovna daughter of Count Chernishev who married in 1766 (Christie's, London, 7 June 2011, lot 206).