Centrepieces [surtouts de table] were one of the most important and imposing pieces of eighteenth-century tableware, and almost always had a functional as well as decorative use. This particular set, however, is purely ornamental, although characterised by its allegorical themes.

The central piece depicts ‘Bacchus Inebriating Love’ and consists of two children, one of them winged, playing on rocks amidst flowers and bunches of grapes. The flanking pieces feature ‘Tenderness’ – a girl looking at doves – and ‘Adolescence with the Attributes of Folly’ – a girl playing castanets and surrounded by a mask, a tambourine and bunches of grapes.

This centrepiece was commissioned from the silversmith François-Thomas Germain by Count Chernyshev, the Russian ambassador in Paris, and is known that was being produced in 1763. It was only completed in 1766, about a year after the silversmith’s devastating bankruptcy, and was one of the last creations by this famous and prolific Parisian master.