Antique French Pierced Silvered Metal Swing-Handle Basket — Openwork Sugar or Bonbon Basket, Neoclassical Arcade Decor

Before the dessert reached the table in a French household, small silver rituals came first — sugar in its pierced basket, sweets passed hand to hand, the swing handle tilting politely toward each guest. Baskets like this one lived at the centre of that quiet choreography, made to be picked up, offered, and set down a hundred times an evening.

This is a pierced swing-handle basket in silvered metal, its body cut through with a continuous arcade of arches sheltering stylised palmette and foliate motifs beneath a swagged upper border — the piercing, called ajouré work, is what lets light pass through the wall of the vessel and gives these baskets their lace-like presence on a table. The reeded bail handle pivots on riveted mounts and folds flat to either side, and the whole rises from a stepped oval foot. Baskets of this form often held a fitted glass liner originally; none is present here, which suits its second life as an open catch-all.

It reaches us with a soft, evenly mellowed surface, light wear to the silvering consistent with a century of handling, and the handle swinging freely — we pass it on as we received it, cleaned and cared for but never over-polished. It settles naturally on an entry console or dressing table, gathering keys, rings, or wrapped sweets as it once gathered sugar.

In plain terms: a French pierced basket in silvered metal with a swinging handle, about the size of a small cereal bowl and weighing 440 grams — under a pound — attributed to the Christofle workshop by the seller, with the attribution to be confirmed against the maker's stamp before we let the name stand.

DETAILS
Size: approx. 10 cm high x 14 cm wide (4 x 5.5 inches) — about the size of a small cereal bowl
Material: silvered metal, pierced openwork
Style-Period: Neoclassical taste, no date claimed
Weight: 440 g
Shipping: professionally packed, fully insured, worldwide — we handle the paperwork, with all import duties paid by us; nothing to settle on delivery.
Condition: good antique condition; even mellow patina, light surface wear to silvering, handle pivots freely, no liner present
Returns: accepted within 30 days.

Read our condition standard. Please ask if you need additional photographs or measurements.

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