French Silver In The Firestone Galleries

BOSTON, MASS. -- The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, has opened two galleries devoted to the Elizabeth Parke and Harvey S. Firestone, Jr, collection of French silver, one of the largest and finest such assemblages in the world.

When Louis XIV of France needed money to support his glittering monarchy and costly military campaigns, he ordered his courtiers to deliver their domestic silver -- at the time as equally prized as gold -- to be melted down to raise cash.

More than 20 tons of Parisian silver, from the workshops of the finest Sixteenth and Seventeenth Century French goldsmiths, were smelted. As Louis's was an age of conspicuous consumption, as were those of his successors, the silver that was lost were monumental pieces like chandeliers, tables, beds, mirrors and chairs, rather than the odd spoon or fork.

In 1709, to cover expenses of the Spanish wars, Louis ordered another melt, which eliminated Seventeenth Century and earlier silver that had previously survived. Subsequently, the Seven Years' War and the Revolution wreaked such havoc that much of what is known today about domestic silver of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries is based on what is noted in inventories or pictured in paintings and tapestries, along with the relatively few pieces that have survived.

Beginning in the early 1940s and continuing through the 1960s, Elizabeth Parke Firestone and her husband, Harvey S. Firestone, Jr, saw the importance of the surviving pieces and began gathering a collection. While the Firestones used and enjoyed their objects in their homes in Akron, Ohio, and Newport, R.I., they were well aware of the value of the collection to scholars. Mrs Firestone, who was not above using wine casters as nut dishes, wished the collection to remain intact in a place where it would be conserved and studied. Five museums vied for the collection; the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, was selected by the Firestone heirs.

The permanent display consists of approximately 125 pieces of French domestic silver from the Sixteenth through Eighteenth Centuries. The objects presented are considerably less grand than those lost in the melts, which are known only from historical sources. These objects were made for noble as well as bourgeois households.

The Paris silver is displayed in a gallery in the museum hung with the paneling from the Fifth Avenue home of New York banker William Salomon. The paneling was made in the style of Louis XVI by Jules Allard et Ses Fils in Paris in 1903. The panels were acquired by Mrs Harriet J. Bradbury of Boston and donated to the MFA in 1924 in memory of her brother, George R. White, a museum trustee.

The museum cleaned and conserved the panels, which had been a dark olive green, in 1996. The room is now a delicate green, with a daintily carved marble fireplace. Large French doors allow filtered light into the room that is mirrored where tapestry once hung.

Until the beginning of the Nineteenth Century, silver was as highly prized as gold. Silver was traditionally used and displayed in the dining room and in the bedroom for toilet articles such as shaving basins, ewers and sponge boxes, examples of which are now on view.

Styles ranged from elaborately decorated pieces with scrolled foliage in high relief, to floridly Rococo pieces and more restrained Neo-classical objects.

In the main exhibit room, two heavily carved sauce boats and stands dominate the display case. They are part of a service made in Paris in 1758 by Francois-Thomas Germain for King Jose I of Portugal. The service was so extensive that Germain hired 120 goldsmiths to complete it. It lead to his eventual bankruptcy.

Enormous sugar casters with delicately reticulated tops gleam from the cases with a dozen plates from the service made by Edme-Pierre Balzac in Paris in 1770-71 for Count Grigory Orlov, a favorite of Catherine the Great. They bear the Romanov crest. The sugar casters are remarkably similar. One was made by Pierre Tudier in Beziers, circa 1745-1755; another is thought to have been made by Francois Michel in Lodeve in about 1740. The third was made between 1712-1717 in Bordeaux by Arnaud Gautrie.

A gilt silver dessert service consists of 74 spoons, forks, knives, servers and tongs, all made by Nicholas-Martin Langlois and Jean-Etienne Langlois in 1786.

Objects made in provincial centers are on view in an adjacent gallery, along with an illustration of the system of marks, devised by the Company of Goldsmiths, the medieval guild that regulated the industry and determined its standards until 1791. An upended cruet frame, one of a pair made in 1763 in Paris by Francois-Thomas Germain, son of the Royal Goldsmith, bears the maker's mark. It also has a charge mark, indicating that taxes were paid; the warden's mark, indicating the purity of the piece and the year; and a discharge mark, a tax on the finished product. A plaque engraved with a military scene by Martin Beaulieu has such extraordinary detail that crenellated turrets are visible in the background.

A delicately simple bowl about four inches in diameter with modest engraving and chasing was made by an unknown artist in about 1536 or 1537. A Strasbourg beaker made in about 1580 is engraved with scenes of the wine harvest, illustrating how provincial makers adapted styles and techniques popular in Paris.

According to Ellenor Alcorn, assistant curator of European decorative arts and sculpture, who with associate curator Jeffrey Munger organized the exhibit, the collection is on view in an experimental installation. Display cases were designed and executed by Stephen Siatas of New York. Two conservators spent five months cleaning the silver, using Q-tips to retain the original patina so as not to look new or flawless.

The objects gleam, yet their years of use are evident. They rest atop a sheer fabric stretched across a perforated stainless steel screen designed to filter out impurities. What appear to be aluminum pans of silica rest below the steel screen to prevent tarnish. It will be of continuing interest to museum staff and collectors and dealers in silver to see whether the silica eliminates or significantly reduces the need for cleaning over the long term.

The Firestone Galleries are on the second floor of the decorative arts wing of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 465 Huntington Avenue. The museum is open daily. Telephone 617/369-3448.