Art Nouveau handled dish - Orfevrerie Gallia - France, c. 1905

A splendid silver plated fruit bowl or bread basket by Orfevrerie Gallia. This subsidiary of the Parisian house of Christofle was founded in the late 19th century and quickly established itself through the manufacture of artistically sound, high-quality household objects in the Art Nouveau style. This basket has two handles in the shape of curly leaves and is decorated with very detailed reliefs of flowers.

In good condition. There are some worn spots here and there. Please refer to the pictures for an impression.

Marked on the bottom with [Goat's head in diamond inside square] for Manufacture de l' Alfenide][Rooster in shield][GALLIA METAL][4442]. These are the firm's oldest maker's marks, used by Gallia in the period 1900-1908.

The "Orfevrerie Gallia" took its name from the copper and tin alloy invented at the end of the 19th century, which would be used as the base material for all its products. The French Christofle, at that time mainly operating in the market segment of luxury goods and prestige items, considered the use of this material so risky that they did not want to see it directly linked to its own brand name. This is because the Gallia metal was actually inferior to the "Metal Blanc" alloy that had been used for Christofle products until then. Gallia production was housed in the Manufacture de l'Alfenide factory, headed by Félix Chéron. However, due to the lower production costs, Gallia did have the budget to hire well-known designers for their own lines (including Luc Lanel, Maurice Dufrêne). Thanks to the beautiful design and the lower cost prices, many of their products became resounding successes. When this realization sank in with the management of Christofle, the name Gallia was fully incorporated into Christofle. In 1935 it no longer operated autonomously.

Special thanks to dr. David N. Nikogosyan for his excellent research and source material, freely available online.