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The eighteenth century in France was an extraordinary period for the European decorative arts. It was characterized by an intense craft activity. There were many orders from the aristocracy and other grand families for interior and exterior ornaments: fireplaces, buffets, oven grates, marble basins, garden vases, braziers, chimney pieces, gilded bronze chandeliers, etc. Gifts of porcelain and objets d'art were presented by the court of France to foreign courts. The eighteenth century teemed with ideas, but it above all entailed promotion of objects.
During the first quarter of the century, when a penchant for the unusual favoured the Rococo style, the goldsmith Juste-Aurèle Meissonnier left Turin for Paris and became famous for a candlestick he made for the king. This was a veritable manifesto of twisting, spiraling metalwork in which the motifs blend into one another.
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