Large Sterling Silver Coffee Pot. Milan, Antonio Garavaglia, Circa 1830

Embossed and engraved silver coffee pot
Antonio Garavaglia
Milan, Circa 1830
It measures 16.92 in (43 cm) and weighs 3.35 lb (1.520 gr)
State of conservation: excellent

The large silver coffee pot has a round mouthpiece with a marked everted rim on which a pagoda lid rests; this is surmounted by a cock-shaped knob with a border decorated with small pods. The cylindrical neck which is adorned with a band engraved with a hexagonal pattern centered around an asterisk with a base of small lines, descends to a rounded shoulder that forms a small detachment and is embellished with a band engraved with oblique parallel lines with small multi-petal flowers. The smooth oval body narrows sharply downwards to join a goblet-shaped foot with an everted ejected ring decorated with thin pods. The foot opens into a base adorned with a continuous palmette motif with a smooth vertical rim. The high pouring spout starts on the front and is adorned at the base by a bearded mask in relief and terminates in a griffin head. On the back a tall and strongly curved handle of ebonized wood starts from a scaly “rhyton” element with a dog snout and ends in a truncated cone element decorated with lanceolate leaflets.

The marks can be seen on the edge of the foot (the original descriptions are reported, as they appear on the documents of the State Archive of Milan):

1) “Forma eptagona. Globo col Zodiaco ed i setti (sic) Trioni.”
Heptagon form. Globe with the Zodiac and the seven Trioni (seven stars of the Ursa Major);
Mark of the Guarantee Office in use in the Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy from 1812 for works with a title of 800 thousandths.

2) Plow.
Mark of the Guarantee Office in use in the Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy from 1812;

3) Anchor and letters AG.
Mark of the silversmith Antonio Garavaglia.

Reference bibliography for marks:
G. SAMBONET, Gli argenti milanesi, Milano 1987, pp. 37-40; e pp. 56 – 57.
V. DONAVER - R. DABBENE, Punzoni degli argentieri milanesi dell’800, Milano 1988, pp. 18-21 e p. 76, n. 69.