VIENNA, 1775 Pair of silver buckets with foliate... Lot 90

VIENNA, 1775 Pair of silver buckets with foliate decoration and ribboned handles, openwork with canals. On the pedestal, signed Ign Krautauer Inv. Et Fec Viennae 1775. Cobalt-blue blown glass linings. Master marks: K for Ignaz Krautauer received master in 1771, died in 1787 (Neuwirth, Wiener Silber, 2002, P 2648, p. 12 and 262). Vienna city hallmark with year 1775. H. 24 D. 18.5 cm Net weights 1648.6 g and 1659.8 g In 1775, the same year our buckets were forged, Krautauer, a young silversmith who had been awarded his master's degree four years earlier, was chosen to make the buckets. was chosen to make a spectacular display for a terrine by the silversmith Ignaz Joseph Würth, the centerpiece of Emperor Josef II's silver tableware. His participation in the creation of the imperial service is an important mark of distinction for his talent. This remarkable pair of buckets was signed by the silversmith, a rare practice in 18th-century France and Austria. In the same year, Krautauer produced a monumental ewer (48 cm, MMA, New-York, 2009-414), emulating the style of the best French masters, such as Jacques Nicolas Roëttiers. Here too, he added an engraved signature to the foot of the ewer, clearly legible as on our buckets: Gemacht durch Ignatz (sic) Krautauer zu Wienn (sic) in dem Jahr 1775 (Made in Vienna by Ignaz Krautauer in the year 1775). Such a presumptuous practice was only tolerated by those who commissioned the most important pieces from the finest craftsmen of the time. For a pair en suite: Daguerre sale, March 21, 2008, lot no. 153. References: Waltraud Neuwirth, Wiener Silber, Namens und Firmenpunzen 1781-1866, 2002; Wolfram Koeppe, Vienna circa 1780, an Imperial Silver Service Rediscovered, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, exhibition cat., New-York 2010, p. 28-31.