This pair of cased, oval covered tureens with cast handles, set on scrolling feet, had maker’s marks of Christ giving a blessing and featured sculptural finials fashioned as trophies of game with a gun.
The tureens weighed 11,110gm in total and all the individual items were incised with weight indications and numbers. Italian silver does not survive in quantity but another attractive feature of this lot is that the tureens had remained in the same family since they were made in the second half of the 18th century.
They had a provenance to Samuel Tscharner (1716-1800), Friedrich von Tscharner (1868–1952) of Berne, then by descent in a Swiss private collection.
All of this was enough to send the bidding sailing past the Sfr20,000-40,000 estimate at the sale on June 18 to reach SFr150,000 (£126,050).
