Silver-Plated Woven Wire Oval Basket and Vide-Poche, France, circa 1900

This delicate oval basket is executed in finely drawn silver-plated wire woven in a precise diagonal basketweave pattern throughout. The sides rise gently from a flat base in an elegant, slightly flared profile, and the rim is finished with a neat border of twisted wire that provides structural rigidity and a refined decorative termination. The overall silhouette — shallow, oval, and graceful — is characteristic of the bread baskets and vide-poches produced by French silver-plating workshops at the turn of the twentieth century.

Woven wire silverware of this type was a specialty of several workshops in the Paris region and in the silver-plating centres of the French provinces, particularly from the 1880s through the first decades of the twentieth century. The production of such pieces — baskets, fruit bowls, letter trays, and vide-poches — required considerable skill: each wire had to be individually drawn, cut, and woven into the structure by hand, creating a textile-like object in metal. The silver plating was then applied by electrolytic bath, giving the finished piece a lustrous, mirror-like surface. Such baskets were standard features of the Belle Époque table and household.

This piece would have served equally well as a bread basket at the dinner table, a letter tray on a writing desk, or a vide-poche on a side table to collect keys, cards, and small objects. The circa 1900 date is consistent with the fineness of the wire, the elegance of the weave, and the quality of the silver plating, all of which speak to the refined standards of Belle Époque decorative arts.

In good condition with natural oxidation of the silver plating consistent with age — the surface has taken on a warm antique tone that enhances its character. The wire weave is intact and sturdy throughout. A charming and functional piece of Belle Époque table silverware.