This two-part silver-plated centerpiece was designed by Lino Sabattini for Christofle’s Gallia line and produced in Italy. A deep, navette-shaped vessel with pointed ends rests in a shallow elliptical well pressed into a long rectangular plateau. Lifted out, the boat stands alone as a sculptural bowl. Set back in its tray, the two pieces lock together, and the vessel appears to float above a flat sheet of metal.
Sabattini was one of the great Italian silversmiths of the postwar period. A protégé of Gio Ponti, he directed Christofle’s creative workshops from 1956 to 1963, and his work is held by the Museum of Modern Art, New York, and the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. The vessel’s hull swells at the center and narrows to two fine points, and its softly stepped interior base breaks the light. The plateau is cut square and left plain, so its satin sheet sets off the polished boat.