Vintage Jean Després Signed Silver Modernist Wine Taster - Tastevin - Planished - c.1960 - 2141

Summary

A signed Jean Després sterling silver wine taster of asymmetric modernist form, with planished hemispheres to one side and inverted teardrops to the other, dating to the late 1950s or early 1960s.

Description

The taster is immediately recognisable as Després work - the surface is alive with hand-planished texture, the hemispheres on one side sitting in deliberate contrast to the smoother inverted teardrops on the other. The asymmetry is not decorative accident; it is the point. Després treated the functional object as a vehicle for sculptural thinking, and this piece carries that conviction in the hand as much as to the eye. A finger loop and raised thumb rest make the intended use clear, and the base is slightly concave - a practical detail that also lifts the bowl fractionally from the table.

To the base, the J Després signature is etched in - the mark Després used on pieces from his Avallon workshop. There are no additional French assay marks, which is not unusual for pieces of this period and origin, but the metal tests to sterling grade.

Jean Després (1889-1980) grew up in Avallon, where his parents ran a small jewellery and gifts shop - an early immersion that shaped his direction. As a teenager he moved to Paris, apprenticing with a silversmith in the Marais while spending his evenings in Montmartre among the avant-garde. It was there he became close friends with Georges Braque, co-founder of Cubism alongside Picasso, and the influence is unmistakable in Després' fondness for geometric forms, overlapping planes, and hard contrasts of texture. During the First World War he worked for the French Air Force as a draughtsman and parts designer - an experience that fed directly into his later 'Bijoux Moteurs' series, with its wheels, cogs, and industrial forms. Returning to Avallon in 1919, he established his workshop and built a body of work bold enough to be exhibited at the V&A's 'International Exhibition of Modern Jewellery' in 1962 and at the Louvre the same year. He was awarded the Légion d'Honneur and won a gold medal at the Brussels World Fair in 1958. He worked until 1977 and died in Avallon in 1980.

Condition

Minor wear only, consistent with age and use. Very good order overall.

Approximate Measurements

• Diameter: 8.4cm (3 1/4 inch) - bowl only
• Height: 5.1cm (2 inch) - to top of thumb rest
• Weight: 97 grams (before packing)

Stock Code: 2141   JU20-1

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