French Silver Plated Champagne Ice Bucket Grape Vine Ring Handles Argit 0211261

French silver plated champagne ice bucket

A French silver plated champagne ice bucket -- the seau a champagne, as it is known at every well-set French table -- marked on the base "Argit / Made in France" with an 18s silver plate designation. The form is classic mid-century French hotel and restaurant silver: a generously flared mouth tapering to a stepped, triple-banded lower body that gives the piece a quietly Art Deco silhouette. Probably dating to the 1950s or 1960s, this style of bucket was a fixture in the best French brasseries and domestic dining rooms of the postwar decades.

What sets this piece apart are the two cast grape vine handles -- vine leaves and a small cluster of grapes rendered with real sculptural presence, each suspending a plain ring for carrying or lifting the bucket from the table. The outer body carries a warm, slightly tawny tone where the silver plate has mellowed over time, contrasting beautifully with the still-bright polished rims and bands. Stamped clearly on the underside, "Argit / Made in France" confirms its French manufacture. On a bar cart, a sideboard or a tablescape, it holds a bottle of Champagne or wine with easy elegance.

Condition and patina consistent with age. The interior shows the expected darkening and light oxidation at the base typical of a piece that has seen genuine use; the exterior silver plate is intact with no deep losses, and the cast vine handles are fully sound.

Approx. 7.9 in tall (20 cm), measured without the handles.

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