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Hi everyone – I’ve received this query from a researcher in Arkansas asking about late 18th century silver pattern books and three specific tureens. I have no particular expertise in this area, but I’m sure some of you do, or know scholars/curators who do. Perhaps our collective wisdom can help him – if you can, please either let me know, or respond directly to him and copy me. Thanks so much, Suzy Frechette Head, Fine Arts Dept. St. Louis Public Library ********************* Hello, I am researching the design sources for an American silver soup tureen made by Chaudron’s and Rasch in Philadelphia in 1811 (image attached) It is so nearly identical to a tureen by the little-known French silversmith, Louis Francois Delassus, made in Paris in 1787 (image also attached), as to raise the possibility that they were both made to the same, possibly published, design. A third, similar tureen, made in Paris in 1775 by Charles-Louis Auguste Spriman (which you can find here<http://artmuseum.bowdoin.edu/CUS.18.zoomobject.1806?sid=28904&x=546911&port=1770>), was brought to the United States from Paris in early 1808 by James Bowdoin III. Thomas Jefferson had sent Bowdoin to Europe in the diplomatic service and the Spriman tureen he brought back may have influenced Jefferson’s choice when he ordered the tureens for the White House later that same year. (These tureens vanished at the burning of the White House in 1814.) In Jefferson’s order he specified: “Two silver tureens of the ordinary size and of the form numbered 1505 on the drawing sent, being the uppermost of the two forms on the paper.” The 1775 Spriman tureen and the 1787 Delassus tureen are two of many known examples of a style common in Paris between about 1760 and 1790, and would have been familiar to Jefferson from his years as minister of the United States to France from 1784 to 1789, when he was a popular dinner guest in the great houses of Paris. Whereas, the Chaudron’s & Rasch tureen is, to the best of my knowledge, a unique survivor in American silver. Simon Chaudron owned over four hundred volumes in French, and he and Rasch are known to have worked from published French designs. While it may seem like wishful thinking, it is possible that the “form numbered 1505”, referred to by Jefferson, is also the design to which Chaudron’s & Rasch were working. Are you aware of, or do you know of anyone who might to aware of, any publication, probably from Paris between about 1760 and 1790, which illustrates a tureen design similar to those shown in my attachments and link? Thanking you in advance for your consideration on this matter. I remain Respectfully yours, David Zimmermann [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> Mary Frechette Senior Subject Specialist Saint Louis Public Library Central Library | Fine Arts 1301 Olive St, St Louis MO, 63103 [log in to unmask] | 314.539.0383 www.slpl.org<http://www.slpl.org/> - tw<https://twitter.com/STLpubLibrary> - fb<https://www.facebook.com/STLpubLibrary> - p<http://www.pinterest.com/stlpublib/> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Mail submissions to [log in to unmask] For information about joining ARLIS/NA see: http://www.arlisna.org/membership/join-arlisna Send administrative matters (file requests, subscription requests, etc) to [log in to unmask] ARLIS-L Archives and subscription maintenance: http://lsv.arlisna.org Questions may be addressed to list owner (Judy Dyki) at: [log in to unmask] ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~