(9) French Empire Period Sterling Silver and Vermeil Coffee Spoons - 8.34 ozt. In the fiddle-and-thread pattern, with one slightly longer than the others, likely from a later point in the Empire Period. Vermeil appears original. Eight of them marked with three marks on the back of the stem and monogrammed with an R on the underside of the handle. The longer one marked ES & Co. with the initials FDE engraved on the back. 

Size: 1 1/4 x 6 in. 

The Empire Period (roughly 1800 to 1820) was an early 19th Century design movement, flourishing during Napoleon I’s French Consulate and First Empire. It represents the second phase of Neoclassicism, characterized by rigid, symmetrical, and ornate architectural and interior designs, utilizing motifs from Greek and Egyptian antiquity to symbolize power. Empire style spread from France to much of Europe and eventually the United States, influencing and existing contemporaneously with the Federal, Regency, and Biedermeier styles and utilizing aesthetics of Imperial Rome to emphasize the shift from a monarchy to an elected or emperor-ruled regime. The style lasted long after Napoleon’s defeat, influencing Scandinavian simplicity, Stalinist austerity, and Brutalist city planning as well as experiencing several revivals, despite its short-lived origins. 

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