Precious silverware from the 18th and 19th centuries on display at Turin's Palazzo Madama

The Atelier Hall of Palazzo Madama in Turin will host the exhibition Argenti preziosi from March 19 to September 28, 2020, as part of the Regione Piemonte’s project L’essenziale è Barocco (Essential is Baroque).

Curated by Clelia Arnaldi di Balme, the exhibition presents a selection of silver works from Palazzo Madama’s collections to illustrate the history ofsilverware in Piedmont from the early 18th century to the late 19th century.

Starting with metalworking techniques, examining Roman spoons, medieval goldsmithing, Renaissance cups, and Baroque filigree, it will analyze the control systems set by the Savoy court to assure the buyer of the value and quality of the objects. The oldest Piedmontese legislation dates back to 1476, but we owe to Marie Jeanne Baptiste of Savoy Nemours the 1677 edict establishing the figure of thestate taster, with the task of certifying the quantity of silver in each object.

Visitors will be able to admire precious table silverware, with cutlery, soup tureens, coffee pots, teapots, chocolatiers and some paiole, or puerpera cups, a gift given by the husband to his wife so she could sip the first broth after childbirth.

Table silverware will be followed by ornamental objects, such as candlesticks, with a beautiful pair of dopplers bearing the hallmark of master silversmith Carlo Bartolomeo Minutto.
Among the objects for worship, a reliquary of St. Maurice dating from the mid-18th century and a chalice by Giovanni Battista Boucheron, dated 1789, will be on display.

The artifacts will be accompanied by Giovanni Battista Boucheron ’s drawings for designs for centerpieces, hanging lamps, pitchers and candlesticks, and portraits of the silversmiths of his family, from which generations of masters emerged, such as Simone Giuseppe, author of the bell for the clock in the midday tower of Palazzo Madama, ordered by Charles Emmanuel II in 1670

The central showcase will welcome for the first time the silver mace ordered from Carlo Balbino by the City of Turin after the Restoration, around the second decade of the 19th century. The mace was carried by the municipal usher on official occasions and echoes the three designs executed for the first civic mace, made by Francesco Ladatte in 1769. The motifs of the taurine head and turreted crown are repeated in the municipal building in the decoration of the Marble Hall.

The exhibition concludes with a nucleus of dorini, hairstyle ornaments and pins in filigree-worked silver, typical of Piedmontese women in the second half of the 19th century.

For info: www.palazzomadamatorino.it

Hours: Monday through Sunday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Closed Tuesdays.
Tickets: Full 10 euros, reduced 8 euros.

Pictured, Ambit by Giovanni Battista Boucheron, Coffee Pot, detail (circa 1790; Turin, Palazzo Madama - Museo Civico d’Arte Antica)

Precious silverware from the 18th and 19th centuries on display at Turin's Palazzo Madama

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