During the late 1600s, Genoa was connected to Spain, which was then still ruled by the Habsburgs, a relationship that King Louis XIV of France - and thus his country - regarded as a provocation. To appease any hostility, Francesco Maria Imperiale Lercari, the 127th Doge of Genoa, travelled for an audience to pay his respects to the Sun King, despite in theory being forbidden to leave the Genoa Republic.
On that occasion, the Doge must have been in good physical condition, having to climb the impressive Ambassadors' Staircase (which is no longer there today) and then stride through the sumptuous halls of the Grand Apartment du Roi, before finally reaching Louis XIV. And the journey was not as simple: through the legendary Hall of Mirrors, at the end of an elevated gallery, there was the king waiting for his Italian visitor.
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Louis XIV was well-known for his extravagance and magnificent display of power, all of which was paraded through the expansion and extension of the Palace of Versailles, whose centerpiece was the small hunting lodge of Louis XIII. The luxury of the place certainly would not have escaped the Doge's eye as he hurried through the halls, this time decorated with his latest and most impressive purchases: silver furniture, illuminated by candles which reflected the light in infinite patterns.
The effect must have been particularly striking in the Hall of Mirrors, where the final showpiece of this furniture stood: Louis’ throne made of pure silver, flanked by massive candelabra.
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Louis XIV’s most important ‘partner in crime’ was the court painter and architect Charles Le Brun (1619-1690), whose advice and assistance the king often sought when fashioning his regal image. The king made Le Brun responsible for furnishing the expansion of the Palace of Versailles from 1661, thus giving him the opportunity to develop a style that would shape an entire epoch. When Louis XIV had the idea of creating solid silver furniture in 1664, he naturally turned to Le Brun, who took over the supervision of the project.
The second most important man was Claude Ballin (1615-1678), one of the best goldsmiths in 17th-century Paris. Together they designed mirrors, benches, candelabra, chests of drawers and, as a special showpiece, the throne of Louis XIV, as well as a balustrade that surrounded the king's bed in the state bedroom, where Louis XIV slept. Only a few lucky ones were allowed to be there, and even fewer at the top of the court hierarchy were allowed to hand His Majesty his nightgown.
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A total of 200 pieces of furniture, made of 20 tons of solid silver, were placed in the halls of the Palace of Versailles in 1682 – only to be removed again after a mere seven years. But why?
The reason for this was Louis’ costly wars, which consumed at least as much money as the building and furnishing of the Palace of Versailles. After waging war against the United Netherlands in the 1670s, the king now faced the Alliance of Augsburg, who opposed his plans for expansion in Europe.
The state treasury emptied, Louis reluctantly ordered to melt down the silver furniture and mint it into coinage. The damage had already been done, however, and a bad rate of inflation meant that the furniture once created for 10 million livres turned into coins worth only 2 million livres.
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Thus the Versailles silver furniture was no more. In addition to the painting by Claude-Guy Hallé depicting the reception for the Doge of Genoa, it is the drawings by Claude Ballin that give an idea of what it looked like. That these drawings are still preserved today is thanks to the Swedish King Gustav III, who repeatedly visited the court of Versailles to admire its splendor. Gustav bought the drawings and included them in his collection, which is now part of the collection of the Swedish National Museum in Stockholm.
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Whatever Louis XIV did at Versailles became a trend across Europe and was adopted and copied by other rulers, no matter how bitter they might have been on the battlefield. This was also the case with the silver furniture, even if not all of it was made of solid silver, but often made of silver-plated ebony. However, even these often ended up being converted into cash in times of crisis, so that today only a very small amount of baroque silver furniture exists. Accordingly, they are also rare in the auction market.
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In addition to individual pieces in Hanover, Berlin, Moscow and Windsor Castle, it is Rosenborg Castle in Copenhagen, the treasury of the Danish kings, that houses the largest surviving collection of silver furniture. In the Knights' Hall, mirrors, candelabra, a cabinet and, above all, three large lion figures guarding the king's and queen's thrones can be admired.
Also competing with the Copenhagen pieces is the silver furniture collection at Forchtenstein Castle in Burgenland, in Austria. They are part of the collection of the Hungarian Esterházy family, who served the Habsburgs for centuries. The silver furniture was collected by Paul, the first Prince Esterházy (1635-1713).
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Particularly noteworthy is a table covered with silver, elaborately decorated with reliefs and sculpted figures. Emperor Leopold I had commissioned the table from the important Augsburg silversmith David Schwestermüller (1596-1678) in order to send it to Sultan Mehmed IV as a diplomatic gift, in the time of the so-called Turkish Wars, in which Austria/Hungary faced the Ottoman Empire. However, since the main relief depicted the judgment of Paris together with the naked goddesses Hera, Aphrodite and Athena, the gift was not sent. Instead, Paul Esterházy bought the table and added it to his collection.
In 2007, silver pieces from many European collections, including those from Copenhagen and Forchtenstein Castle, were set up for an exhibition at the Palace of Versailles, with the intention to give an idea of how Louis XIV once impressed his courtiers and visitors.
Baroque silver furniture and its history reflect the epoch of its creation perfectly, on the one hand as pieces of the highest craftsmanship combined with the representation of royal power, and on the other hand, as pieces used as an ‘investment’, which could quickly be turned into money in the event of war, something not unusual at the time.
