Emile Puiforcat - French Silver Dessert Spoon & Fork - France, 1857-1890

A set of 1st grade French silver dessert spoon and fork by the silversmith Emile Puiforcat (1857-1890). Very finely detailed with a pattern of garlands and acanthus leaf. Although the maker's mark was in use from the mid-19th century until 1927, this neoclassical pattern was probably still made under Emile Puiforcat (unlike his descendant Jean Puirorcat, who mainly created Art Deco designs), and the set can therefore be dated with some certainty to the period between 1857-1890.

Length: 17cm

Maker's mark: E-Knife-P in diamond for Emile Puiforcat (maker's mark in use 1857-1927)
1st French Minerva for .950 silver
Engraved with initials "J.L."

Emile Puiforcat succeeded his uncle, Jean-Baptiste Fuchs, a knife maker in Paris (since 1843). He registered his own maker's mark on November 3, 1857 and remained active at 16 rue Chapon in Paris until his death in 1883. His successor used the same maker's mark. The later descendant Jean Puiforcat became world famous during the 1920s and 1930s as a figurehead of silversmithing. Miller's Antiques Encyclopedia called him "the most important silversmith of the Art Deco period".