A Louis XV French silver ladle from the Aveiras service, Charles Spire, Paris, 1753

Francisco da Silva Telo e Meneses, 1st Marquis de Vagos and 6th Count d’Aveiras (1723-1808),

Marquis da Foz (1849-1917),

Collection Puiforcat,

Christie's, Paris, French collection d’un amateur, 3-4 October 2012, lot 64

Louis XV, un moment de perfection de l'art Français, Hôtel de la Monnaie; Paris; 1974; no. 512

G. Bapst; Catalogue raisonnée des pièces d’orfèvrerie française composant la collection du marquis da Foz,Paris; Paris; 1889

Les Grands Orfèvres de Louis XIII à Charles X; Paris; 1965; p. 172 illustrated; 

F. Dennis; Three centuries of French domestic silver; New York; 1960; t.I, p; 212-213 et t.II, p. 104, n° 317

The coat-of-arms is that of Don Francisco da Silva Telo e Meneses, 1st marquis of Vagos, 6th count of Aveiras (1723-1808).

Charles Spire was born in 1716, the son of a bailiff. He was apprenticed to Edouard Prévost and registered his hallmark in 1736. Fewer than twenty pieces with his mark are known, but an oil cruet at the Louvre, dated 1736–1737, is the oldest known piece. The Calvet Museum in Avignon and the Gulbenkian Museum in Lisbon also hold works by him.

Research at the National Archives in Paris has allowed us to calculate his annual silver production: between 1750 and 1756, he submitted between 340 and 482 kg, which then declined from 1762 onwards as he focused on gold pieces. He served multiple terms as a sworn warden before his death in 1788.

The years 1750–1756 were the most lucrative for Spire, who likely created a significant silver table service for Francisco da Silva Telo e Meneses, 6th Count of Aveiras (1723–1808). Some pieces from this service have survived: a pot-à-oille and its ladle, dated 1752–1754, are at the Gulbenkian Museum. The matching pot-à-oille was sold at Ader, Paris, on 15 June 1934, then at Sotheby’s, Monaco on 15 June 1997, lot 216. This ladle, identical to the one in Lisbon, thus belongs with the second pot-à-oille. A pair of three-light candelabra bearing the same arms, with the candlesticks by Simon Bourguet and the branches by Spire, were sold at Sotheby’s, Monaco on 15 June 1997, lot 217, part of a set of four illustrated in G. Bapst, Catalogue raisonné des pièces d’orfèvrerie française composant la collection du marquis da Foz, 1889, pl. XII.

This richly decorated service showcases Spire’s skill in crafting imposing pieces: the pot-à-oille’s finial is adorned with birds and foliage, its body features large floral drops echoed on the stand, while the ladle’s shell-shaped bowl and olive-branch handle are entirely original.

Francisco da Silva Telo e Meneses, 1st Marquis of Vagos and 6th Count of Aveiras (1723-1808)

Don Francisco da Silva Telo e Meneses, 1st Marquis of Vagos, 6th Count of Aveiras (1723–1808), came from a prominent Portuguese family, several members of which served as viceroys of the Americas. From 1740, he joined the Regimento de Aveiras, which he commanded between 1762 and 1780; in 1793, he became governor of Évora, then in 1797, general of artillery and governor of the Armas da Corte in Estremadura province; in 1802, he was named marquis and governor of the Armas de Rio de Janeiro. He also held honorary titles, such as ordomo-mor to Princess D. Maria Francisca Benedita (1746–1829), war counselor, and recipient of the Grand Cross of the Order of Christ.

The Count of Aveiras likely admired the silver service crafted by the greatest goldsmith of Louis XV’s reign, Thomas Germain, who delivered a grand silver service to King João V of Portugal, destroyed during the 1755 Lisbon earthquake. François-Thomas Germain then created a second service between 1755 and 1758 for the new sovereign, José I, partially preserved at the Museum of Ancient Art in Lisbon. The rococo and whimsical style of this second service suggests the style of Germain’s first, likely inspiring the Count of Aveiras to commission Spire to replicate this rococo exuberance and naturalistic flair for ceremonial pieces like the pots-à-oille, explaining the richness of our ladle’s design. Other Portuguese nobles, including Cardinal da Motta e Silva, the Marquis of Abrantes, the Count of Tarouca, and the Dukes of Alveiro, followed the royal example, commissioning large services from Thomas Germain, as well as Antoine-Sébastien Durand, Ambroise-Nicolas Cousinet, and Robert-Joseph Auguste, making Portugal now home to the largest collection of 18th-century French silver. 

Marquis da Foz (1849-1917)

Tristão Guedes Correia de Queiroz e Castello-Branco, 1st Marquis and 2nd Count da Foz (1849–1917), amassed his fortune during Portugal’s industrial development in the late 19th century, notably railway construction. He assembled an exceptional collection at the Palácio Foz, an early 18th-century palace purchased in 1889, including a remarkable group of French silver described in Germain Bapst’s 1889 publication, featuring the pair of pots-à-oille, ladles, and candelabra engraved with the Aveiras arms. Crippled by debt, he was forced to auction his collection at Christie’s, London on 10 June 1892.