Vessel of Hermes

was originally a ceremonial sugar bowl, which over time came to be conceived of as a jam dispenser. As such it was fitted with slots to hold spoons so that guests around the table could help themselves to. The elegant silver and crystal shown here was made in Paris between 1794 and 1798 by the master silversmith Jean Nicolas Boulanger. Decorated in the Louis XVI style (although the king was deposed and executed by the time it was made), it has an interior bowl of wheel-cut crystal with a domed lid topped by a silver pearl. It rises on three curved pillars ending in deer hooves that stand on a triangular base, lined with acanthus leaves, that rests on three silver pearls. At the center of the base is a silver pinecone rising from an acanthus crown.