19th Century Portuguese Cutlery Canteen

A very fine late nineteenth century Portuguese Louis XVI-style Stirling silver and silver gilt cutlery canteen for twelve settings by Giovanni Battista Cristofanetti, stamped on the cream lining on the interior of the box: G. B. Cristofanetti/Cinzelador Ourives/R D Pedro V, 90, 92/Lisboa, the flatware service consisting of ninety-six pieces comprising twelve table knives, forks and spoons, twelves dessert knives, forks and spoons and twelve fish knives and forks, housed in its original oak box with two elaborate Renaissance-style brass hinges at the rear and matching clasps at the front, a small drawer at the front with a pair of turned pulls and a central escutcheon and a further one above on the main section of the box, the whole on winged lion paw feet, the table and dessert cutlery stored in the upper section of the canteen above the fish knives and forks, which are accessed via the small drawer at the front. Each piece fully hallmarked with the Portuguese Lisbon boar’s head and stamped I (for the highest purity silver), the cutlery probably regilded, the knives with their original blades
Lisbon, Portugal, date circa 1890-1900
Although little has been written about Giovanni Battista Cristofanetti (1860-1947), he was held in high esteem in his day, celebrated as a gifted and very able goldsmith, sculptor, medallist, designer and professor of industrial design and applied metalwork. Born in Italy, he trained in his home country at the Academia de Belas Artes de Roma and worked at the Museu Artístico e Industrial de Roma, counting among his teachers the Italian painter Domenico Bruschi (1840-1910) and, according to an entry in the catalogue of the National Exhibition of Fine Art at Rio de Janeiro (1908), he also studied under Bizharri and Preatoni Weolemann. His relationship with Domenico Bruschi appears to have been close, for instance an album, dated 1881, containing twenty-five of Cristofanetti’s drawings and designs, that was offered for sale by Bestnet Auctions, Lisbon, included an inscription by Bruschi, noting that he (or Cristofanetti himself) had used the drawings contained in the album for a study at the Museu Artístico e Industrial in Rome.
Cristofanetti may well have remained in Rome but owing to an initiative set up by the Portuguese scientist, professor and politician António Augusto de Aguiar (1838-87), he moved to Portugal. As a minister, Aguiar was responsible for an important reform of industrial and commercial education, which in about 1884, granted the Industrial and Commercial Institute of Lisbon the authority to award higher education diplomas to students of what was then called the Higher Course in Commerce. Since there was a shortage of teachers for industrial education in Portugal, competitions were opened in several European countries, and it was through this that Cristofanetti was hired to teach in Lisbon. He was the only goldsmith to have been chosen. Once settled in Portugal, Cristofanetti proved a very able teacher, specialising in artistic drawing and modelling, applied to sculpture and decorative carving. Among his pupils were a number of outstanding goldsmiths and engravers such as the sculptor, goldsmith, and medallist João da Silva (1880-1960) and the goldsmith João Joaquim Monteiro (1887-1949), both of whose work reflected Cristofanetti’s ability as a designer and chaser.
In addition to his teaching, Cristofanetti built up a thriving practise as a goldsmith, medallist and sculptor, counting among his output a number of commemorative medals, military bas-relief portraits and trophies, jewellery boxes, silver models, seals, knobs and knockers, presentation cups, plates, cutlery and even silver furniture. He also established a retail shop in Lisbon at Rua de Dom Pedro V, 90-92, as stamped on the inside of the present canteen box. He also gained many commissions and won a number of prestigious prizes at the national and international exhibitions. Among many awards, he won a first class prize from the Artistic-Industrial Museum of Rome in 1884 and a silver medal at the Exhibition of Artistic and Metal Works in Rome (1886). He was also awarded a gold medal at the Vatican International Exhibition in 1888, where one of his pieces was acquired by the King of Italy. This was a silver Renaissance-style cup decorated with arabesque designs above the head of Medusa and grotesque motifs and further embellished with fruit and flowers at the base. At the same exhibition Cristofanetti showed a Renaissance-style silver desk commissioned by the Papal court for Pope Leo III.
In addition, Cristofanetti won the diploma of honour at the Italian Exhibition in London in 1888, where amongst his exhibits was a reduced scale silver bas-relief of the Virgin and Child after Donatello, which by 1908, was owned by the Hon. Marquez da Foz, Lisbon. At the same show he exhibited a wax model, later cast in silver in the style of Benvenuto Cellini. He, alongside Michelangelo Soà and Vittorio Giuseppe Fiorentini were the mains subjects at the Exposição de Desenhos e de Obras d’Arte held at the Museu Industrial e Commercial do Porto in 1890, where, instead of the objects themselves, he showed photographs of his work. Among them was a photo of a silver jewellery box, made for a private commission, featuring rock crystal panels on the top and the four sides that were engraved by the artist Theofilo Sanzi of Rome. Another photograph showed a silver military medal, commissioned by the army as a gift from the officers of the Italian army to General Mezzacapo, President of the Supreme Military Tribunal, whose portrait appeared in the centre. In addition, Cristofanetti also exhibited at the the Lisbon Artistic Guild in 1894, where he was awarded a second class medal, and at the National Exhibition of Fine Arts in Rio de Janeiro in 1908. While many of his pieces still remain in private hands and his work occasionally comes onto the open market, the majority of his artistic heritage, including executed work and original designs, was acquired by the Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga in Lisbon.