Jean-Charles Cahier
( 1772 - 1857 )
A Pair of French Silver Wine Coolers
Jean-Charles Cahier
( 1772 - 1857 )
A Pair of French Silver Wine Coolers
Paris, 1824
Maker’s Mark of Jean-Charles Cahier
Each applied twice with the monogram of Grand Duke Mikhail Pavlovitch of Russia.
The Paris service known after Grand Duke Michail Pavlovitch, son of Tsar Paul I was made for the Michail Palace in St Petersburg, built between 1819 and 1823. The principal Parisian goldsmiths involved were Martin Guillaume Biennais and Jean-Charles Cahier, who worked in collaboration, the latter taking over Biennais's workshop with its archive and designs, on Biennais's retirement in 1821. Following the death of Grand Duke Michail in 1849, the enormous service was inherited by his only daughter Grand Duchess Ekaterina Mikhailovna and then by his grand-daughter Elena Georgievna (1857-1936). Following the revolution and confiscation, the service was largely dispersed outside Russia being sold off to raise currency up to around 1933, entering a number of museums and private collections. In Russia, in The Hermitage only a few items remain. Another pair of coolers to this design from the same service, were sold Sothebys Zurich, 18 November 1977, lot 162. A single conforming wine cooler by Martin-Guillaume Biennais with the cypher of Duke Nicolai, Duke Michail's brother later Tsar Nicolai I was sold Sothebys, Geneva, 14 Nov 1988, lot 101.
Cahier was born in Soissons, goldsmith merchant and jeweller, living in Paris, rue de Turenne (1802) then 58, Quai des Orfèvres, under the sign of A l'Ancre. He was appointed goldsmith to the King in 1816 and took over from Martin-Guillaume Biennais (1764-1843), who he was apprenticed to, when the latter retired from business in 1821. Cahier first rented the Biennais shop and workshop located at n ° 283 rue Saint-Honoré (1821), then bought his business (1823), but kept his own home at 58 Quai des Orfèvres.
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