This four-piece set is composed of a teapot, coffee pot, sugar bowl and a milk jug and was made by the House of Odiot, a renowned French silver firm founded in 1690 by Jean-Baptiste Gaspard Odiot and made famous by his grandson Jean-Baptiste-Claude during the reign of Napoleon I. Following Jean-Baptiste-Claude’s retirement in 1823, the firm was taken over by his son Charles-Nicholas Odiot (died 1869), and it is from this period that this set is likely to have been made. Charles-Nicholas had spent some time working at Garrard’s of London, and when he returned to Paris he brought with him innovations in powered machinery as well as an appreciation of the naturalistic rococo revival style which had become fashionable in England. The rococo style originated in France in the 1740s and experienced a revival in England at the start of the 19th century. The style remained popular throughout much of the 19th century, and in France another revival of the rococo style emerged in the 1880s with forms more closely resembling 18th century originals.
