French Silver Plated Woven Wire Bottle Basket Gallia Christofle 14102613

French silver plated bottle basket

A French silver plated bottle basket -- known in French as a panier a bouteille -- woven from flat silver plated wire strips and fitted with a braided twisted handle, this piece was produced by Gallia for Christofle, one of the most celebrated French silversmithing houses. Gallia was the electroplate line launched by Christofle in the early twentieth century to bring the look of fine silver to a broader table, and baskets of this form were designed to cradle a wine or champagne bottle at a slight angle for elegant serving at the French bourgeois table.

The construction is genuinely accomplished: flat metal ribbons are woven in a classic basketweave pattern over a sturdy wire armature, the rim finished with a tightly twisted rope-form border and the handle formed from the same braided wire. One end of the basket opens into a fan of straight wires to support the neck of the bottle. The silver plating has developed a warm, aged patina -- darker in the recesses, brighter on the raised weave -- that gives the piece considerable visual depth. Stamped marks on the woven strips read exactly: GALLIA / FRANCE and PROD. / CHRISTOFLE, with the Gallia hallmark cartouche also present. On a bar cart, a sideboard or a wine table, it makes a handsome and historically grounded display piece.

Condition and patina consistent with age. The silver plating shows tarnishing and some loss to the flat wire strips, visible particularly on the interior base, along with light surface oxidation throughout -- all in keeping with a piece of this era and entirely consistent with honest French brocante character.

Approx. 5.9 in long x 3.9 in wide x 1.6 in high (15 x 10 x 4 cm) at the basket body, measured without the handle.

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