Yves Saint Laurent Pierre Bergé - Christie's

134
silver &
miniatures
It would be difficult to imagine a more exciting collection of silver than that so imaginatively displayed at
Yves Saint Laurent’s and Pierre Bergé’s apartments. To have seen their silver out on display as originally
intended, to be admired by visitors for its decorative appeal and workmanship, is an enormous privilege.
The silver, or perhaps more correctly, the silver, silver-gilt and gold collection filled table after table in the
apartments with displays of outstanding German 16th-, 17th- and early 18th-century silver made in the
country’s three greatest silversmithing centres – Augsburg, Nuremberg and Hamburg. It was an extraordinary
sight with pieces ranging from mounted exotic nautilus shells and ostrich eggs, to models of ships known
as nefs, to drinking cups in the form of lions, bears, a stag, horse, ox, greyhound, swan, owl and even
a mythical unicorn. This sculptural theme continued with a miniaturised elephant with soldiers in the
castle on its back and, above all, with a superb Augsburg silver group of Nessus abducting Deianeira after a
model by the great Italian Mannerist sculptor, Giambologna. These marvellous objects were interspersed with
lovely gold boxes and objets d’art.
Silver as it was displayed in the rue Bonaparte
– Anthony Phillips
International Director, Silver