Sugar bowl

Marc-Etienne Janety

1786 · Platinum, blue glass · European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

Janety appears to have been the first European silversmith to work in platinum, newly available to silversmiths in the 1780s. It had recently been discovered that arsenic lowered the melting point of platinum, allowing it to be cast and then worked. The new medium also had the advantage of not tarnishing. This sugar bowl appears to be the only extant work in platinum by Janety. The crispness of the details, seen in the relief of the satyr and nymph and in the various decorative motifs, reflects his technical mastery of the medium.

Artist

Marc-Etienne Janety

Date

1786

Medium

Platinum, blue glass

Culture

French, Paris

Department

European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

Credit line

Purchase, Gift of Dr. and Mrs. A.L. Garbat, Manya Garbat Starr and Julian A. Garbat, by exchange, and Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1974