Milk Jug thumbnail 1
Not on display

Milk Jug

1936-1937 (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

This service is a faithful copy by the Birmingham manufacturer, Elkington of a Puiforcat design first produced in 1936. The design appears in the Elkington pattern books although no acknowledgement is made to the source. There is no evidence to suggest whether this is an unofficial copy or whether it was made under licence to Puiforcat.

Jean Puiforcat was a French silversmith, designer and sculptor. After service in World War I, he joined the family firm of silversmiths, working as an apprentice and designer. Concurrently he studied sculpture with Louis-Aimé Lejeune (1884–1969). Puiforcat exhibited continuously from 1920 to 1937 and worked independently from 1922. He designed silver objects in the Art Deco style as simple volumes with smooth profiles and surfaces and proportions based on geometric ratios (e.g. soup tureen, c. 1925; Grenoble, Mus. Grenoble). The austerity of these forms was tempered by areas of gilding, decoration in other materials (e.g. rosewood, ivory, onyx, lapis lazuli) or by decorative bands of ribbing or reeding. About 1927 he left Paris to live in Saint-Jean-de-Luz where he continued to design silver and to work as a sculptor. In 1929 he was a founder-member of the Union des artistes modernes. His designs were mostly for tableware, but in 1934 he exhibited liturgical silver for the first time, and the Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne (1937), Paris, included his stone sculpture of René Descartes (The Hague, Maison France). At the onset of World War II he left France, eventually settling in Mexico (1941). He opened a studio in 1942 and exported his silver mostly to the USA. He returned to Paris in 1945 but died immediately after his arrival.

Object details

Categories
Object type
Materials and techniques
Silver, rosewood handle, parcel gilt
Brief description
Silver, parcel-gilt, rosewood, Birmingham hallmarks for 1936-7, mark of Elkington & Co., designed by Jean Puiforcat.
Physical description
The body of the jug has a gently flared cylindrical form with horizontal ribs standing out from the sides; the interior gilt. The spout consists of a small opening on the top rim. The square sectioned wooden handle has a double curved E shape.
Dimensions
  • Height: 10.0cm
  • Length: 11.7cm
  • Width: 8.2cm
Style
Marks and inscriptions
Base: maker E & Co for Elkington and Co., anchor, sterling, date letter M (1936-7), serial no. 38020 lid: sterling, date letter
Gallery label
(2000)
TEA SERVICE
Silver, parcel-gilt, the knops and handles of Brazilian rosewood
Birmingham hallmarks for 1936-37
Mark of Elkington & Company and the number 38020
Designed by Jean Puiforcat, 1936

This service is a faithful copy by the Birmingham manufacturer Elkington, of a Puiforcat design first produced in 1936. The design appears in the Elkington pattern books although no acknowledgement is made to the source. There is no evidence to suggest whether this is an unofficial copy or whether it was made under licence to Puiforcat.
Object history
Acquisition RF: 74 / 2338
Purchase - £480 - for complete set Circ. 521-524-1974
From Chiu, 10 Charlton place, Camden Passage, London N1.

Part of a service. This service is a faithful copy by the Birmingham manufacturer, Elkington of a Puiforcat design first produced in 1936. The design appears in the Elkington pattern books although no acknowledgement is made to the source. There is no evidence to suggest whether this is an unofficial copy or whether it was made under licence to Puiforcat.
Summary
This service is a faithful copy by the Birmingham manufacturer, Elkington of a Puiforcat design first produced in 1936. The design appears in the Elkington pattern books although no acknowledgement is made to the source. There is no evidence to suggest whether this is an unofficial copy or whether it was made under licence to Puiforcat.

Jean Puiforcat was a French silversmith, designer and sculptor. After service in World War I, he joined the family firm of silversmiths, working as an apprentice and designer. Concurrently he studied sculpture with Louis-Aimé Lejeune (1884–1969). Puiforcat exhibited continuously from 1920 to 1937 and worked independently from 1922. He designed silver objects in the Art Deco style as simple volumes with smooth profiles and surfaces and proportions based on geometric ratios (e.g. soup tureen, c. 1925; Grenoble, Mus. Grenoble). The austerity of these forms was tempered by areas of gilding, decoration in other materials (e.g. rosewood, ivory, onyx, lapis lazuli) or by decorative bands of ribbing or reeding. About 1927 he left Paris to live in Saint-Jean-de-Luz where he continued to design silver and to work as a sculptor. In 1929 he was a founder-member of the Union des artistes modernes. His designs were mostly for tableware, but in 1934 he exhibited liturgical silver for the first time, and the Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne (1937), Paris, included his stone sculpture of René Descartes (The Hague, Maison France). At the onset of World War II he left France, eventually settling in Mexico (1941). He opened a studio in 1942 and exported his silver mostly to the USA. He returned to Paris in 1945 but died immediately after his arrival.
Associated objects
Bibliographic references
  • Illustrated in, F de Bonneville, Puiforcat, p.131
  • Bliss, Simon. 'Thoroughly modern: reflections on the work of Jean Puiforcat'. The Silver Society Journal, vol. 15, 2003, pp. 141-49
  • Benton, Tim, Manuel Fontán del Junco and María Zozaya, eds. Modern Taste. Art Deco in Paris 1910 - 1935. Catalogue of the exhibition in Madrid: Fundación Juan March, March 26 - June 28 2015. Madrid: Fundación Juan March, 2015. ISBN 9788470756290
Collection
Accession number
CIRC.523-1974

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Record createdMarch 3, 2004
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