Magical little Strasbourg butter shovel, silver with remains of the original gilding

Object number 369

BZ: Strasbourg 1760-1770 (see Rosenberg Volume 4, No. 6932

Maker’s mark: Johann, Jacob, Kirstein (see Rosenberg Vol 4 No 7016)

Length: 17.5 cm, weight 36.7 g.

Butter dish, silver, with remains of the original gilding. Triangular shovel with rounded corners, engraved with a drapery motif on the border and in the centre the arms of François Henri d’Harcourt, Governor of Normandy, Marshal of France.

Johann Jacob Kirstein (originally Kirschenstein), silversmith in Strasbourg, master in 1760. He was the son of goldsmith Joachim Friedrich Kirstein, who came from Brandenburg and was accepted in 1729 into the Stelz guild. Father and son are among the most important masters in Strasbourg. Our Joh. Jac Kirstein also worked for the King of Saxony.