IMPORTANT silver TERRINE, oval-shaped, resting on a plain mo - Lot 28

IMPORTANT silver TERRINE, oval-shaped, resting on a plain molded pedestal. The double-bowed body is embossed and chased with a branch of flowers and foliage running around it. The handles, with double scrolls, are attached to the body by rocailles. The doucine lid is edged with fillets and a small branch of chased flowers and leaves. The stylized pomegranate handle rests on a base of cut, wavy and chased leaves. The interior is in vermeil. Master-gilder : Georg Carl BRENNER (1754-1814) CELLE, circa 1770 Height: 23.3 cm Length : 36,4 cm Weight : 1840 g (small dents in the lid) Provenance: ADER-PICARD-TAJAN sale, Antique and modern jewelry, showcase objects, Antique and modern silverware, Experts MM. BOUTEMY and DECHAUD, DROUOT Rive Gauche, room 6, March 14, 1977, lot 101 (ill. pl. VI). History: The catalog of the March 14, 1977 sale states: "According to family tradition, this soup tureen was given by Goethe to Charlotte Buff on her wedding day in 1773. Charlotte Buff was the heroine of Goethe's novel The Sufferings of Young Werther". In an article published in Le Figaro on March 1, 1977, Yves DETAN recounts the destiny of this object, intimately linked to one of history's most famous platonic love stories. Goethe is said to have given this terrine to Charlotte Buff, the "heroine" of his "Werther", when she married Jean-Chrétien Kestner on April 14, 1773. Charlotte Kestner had eleven children. On her death in 1828, the terrine probably passed to Auguste Kestner, an art historian and collector, archaeologist and diplomat who lived in Rome. He was a friend of Goethe's son, Auguste Goethe. He took him in and saw him die at home, carried off by a fever. In Rome, in the small Protestant cemetery of Caius Cestius, the tombs of the two friends - Charlotte's son and Goethe's son - are next to each other. According to the journalist of the time, we can follow the story of this terrine. It passed to the third son of the heroine of "Werther", who founded a chemical products factory in Alsace; then to her grandson, who expanded his father's factory in Thann, Haut-Rhin. Then to his great-grandchildren, Céline and Auguste Scheurer-Kestner. The latter became vice-president of the French Senate. Convinced of Captain Dreyfus's innocence, he initiated a review of the trial. Two generations later, the terrine was auctioned at Drouot Rive Gauche. Charlotte Buff was born on January 11, 1753 in Wetzlar, a Free City of the Holy Roman Empire, near Frankfurt am Main and Marburg. In 1772, the 23-year-old Goethe arrived in Wetzlar, where the Imperial Court was then sitting, to perfect his legal skills at his father's request. He first met Jean-Chrétien Kestner, Legation Secretary of the Electorate of Hanover, who had just become engaged to Charlotte Buff, and who introduced him to the German House, headquarters of the Teutonic Order. Goethe first saw Charlotte at a country ball in Volpertshausen on June 9, 1772, and was immediately struck by her simple, natural grace. He portrayed the 19-year-old in the 12th book of Vérité et Poésie: "She was one of those women who, without inspiring violent passions, are made to hold everyone under their spell. A slight waist, elegant forms, a pure and beautiful health, and the joyful activity that is its consequence; the easy fulfillment of daily duties; all these gifts were shared by her". Kestner and Charlotte married on April 14 of the following year, and settled in Hanover, capital of the Electorate of Hanover (whose ruler was also King of England). Kestner died on May 24, 1800. Hanover was occupied by French troops in 1803, and Charlotte Kestner sought temporary refuge in Wetzlar. In 1816, she spent a few days with her sister, married in Weimar, and saw Goethe for the last time. Her papers and those of her husband are in the hands of their grandson, George Kestner, who lives in Dresden, capital of the Kingdom of Saxony. Documents relating to Goethe's stay in Wetzlar and the composition of Werther are published by Auguste Kestner, a legation councillor like her father, and resident minister at the Court of Rome. She died on January 16, 1828 in Hanover1 at the age of 75. Goethe died in 1832. ....... Expert | Maxime CHARRON