Tray (c. 1907): Art, History and Details

Tray (c. 1907) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Carlo Bugatti (Italian, 1856–1940); Adrien-Aurélien Hebrard (French, 1866–1937).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

This tea and coffee service, salver, and table, together with some now missing cups, were all designed by Carlo Bugatti as an ensemble and presented at the 1902 exposition devoted to decorative arts in Turin, Italy. The set was probably acquired from Bugatti's 1907 exhibition at the Galerie Hébrard in Paris by a wealthy South African widow, Anna Blake, who was living there at the time. Some of the animal and insect motifs suggest mythical beasts or the fossils of prehistoric animals. When Mrs. Blake returned to Cape Town, she took these and other pieces designed by Bugatti with her, and they remained in South Africa throughout her lifetime.

Object facts

• Title: Tray
• Date: c. 1907
• Creator attribution: Carlo Bugatti (Italian, 1856–1940); Adrien-Aurélien Hebrard (French, 1866–1937)
• Culture: France, Paris
• Type: Silver
• Technique: Gilt silver and ivory
• Dimensions: Overall: 13.5 x 76.9 x 19.9 cm (5 5/16 x 30 1/4 x 7 13/16 in.)
• Collection: Decorative Arts
• Department: Decorative Art and Design
• Accession number: 1980.74.1

A detail from the museum

This tray is part of a tea and coffee service designed by Carlo Bugatti.

Collection credit

The Thomas L. Fawick Memorial Collection

Further reading listed by the museum

• Kathman, Barbara A. A Cleveland Bestiary. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1981.
• Duncan, J. Alastair. "The Silver of Carlo Bugatti," The Magazine Antiques 136, no. 6, (December 1989): 1344-55.
• Hawley, Henry. "Some Furniture and Silver of Carlo Bugatti." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 79, no. 5 (May 1992): 130-43.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.