Martin-Guillaume Biennais (French, 1764–1843)
Pierre-Benoît Lorillon (French, 1757–1816)
Pietro Paola Spagna (Italian, 1793-1861)
Paris
Set of Salt Spoons (10), from a Service Made for Pauline Bonaparte and Prince Camillo Borghese
INV-2519
Martin-Guillaume Biennais (French, 1764–1843)
Pierre-Benoît Lorillon (French, 1757–1816)
Pietro Paola Spagna (Italian, 1793-1861)
Paris1789–1820
Set of Salt Spoons (10), from a Service Made for Pauline Bonaparte and Prince Camillo Borghese
Martin-Guillaume Biennais (French, 1764–1843) Pierre-Benoît Lorillon (French, 1757–1816) Pietro Paola Spagna (Italian, 1793-1861) Paris →silvermetalwork
Date
1789–1820
Medium
Gilded silver
Dimensions
H.: 11.7 cm (4 5/8 in.)
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Location
Chicago, IL
Credit
Gift of Mrs. Charles V. Hickox
These salt spoons are part of a vast service made for Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte’s sister Pauline on the occasion of her marriage to the Roman nobleman Camillo Borghese, Sixth Prince of Sulmona.
In the years after the French Revolution, architects and designers adopted the visual language of ancient Greece and Rome to express the new imperial order. Napoleon, hoping to promote Paris’s luxury trades, commissioned several silver dinner services as gifts to be sent abroad.