Puiforcat - French silver set of Fish Servers - 1st Minerva - .950 silver - France, c. 1880

Beautiful silver pair of fish serving pieces, made in the late 19th century by the famous French silversmith Puiforcat. The handles are shaped like fluted columns with floral decorations. The blades are silver-plated with openwork and very finely engraved with patterns of plants and flowers. 

Serving knife length: 30.3cm / 11.9 inches - 163 grams
Serving fork length: 27.2cm / 10.7 inch - 149 grams

The pieces are in excellent condition. The silver handles without wear, the silver-plated blades without silver loss. 

Marked [E-Knife-P] underneath the blade of the fork.

The cutlery model is depicted on page 165 of David Allen's "French Silver Cutlery of the 19th Century".

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