OLIER & CARON, PARIS — Monumental 305-Piece French 950 Solid Silver Flatware Service — 13.258 kg Net Silver — Mother-of-Pearl Knives — Early 20th Century - One in a Lifetime opportunity!! Exceptional and extraordinarily extensive 305-piece French solid silver table service by the renowned Parisian silversmith Olier & Caron, dating from the first decades of the 20th century. Extremely rare and monumental. The pieces bear the French Minerva 1st standard hallmark for 950/1000 silver and the maker’s mark of Olier & Caron. Comparable documented Olier & Caron services in the French auction market include extensive combinations of table, dessert, fish, crustacean and specialized serving implements. Composition — 305 pieces The service comprises 252 principal pieces, arranged in 14 different groups of 18 pieces each, providing an exceptionally extensive range of table, fish, dessert and specialty flatware. The principal service includes: 18 Forks: table forks, fruit forks, dessert and pastry forks, fish forks and oyster forks. 18 Spoons: table spoons, soup spoons, dessert spoons, fruit spoons, teaspoons, coffee/demitasse spoons and smaller specialty spoons. 18 Knives: a set of exceptionally rare 18 table knives with genuine mother-of-pearl (nacre) handles and 950 silver blades, together with 18 solid-silver fish knives, distinguished by their unusual elongated, semi-rectangular blade form. 35 specialized accessories constitute one of the most important and unconventional aspects of the ensemble: They include an impressive selection of large serving spoons, soup ladle, smaller ladles, sauce and gravy spoons, gilt/vermeil serving spoons, pierced serving utensils, fish servers, pierced fish slice, cake and pastry servers, sugar and condiment utensils, 2 specialised tongs, 2 scissors-type tongs implements and an extensive selection of implements associated with the traditional French service of lobster, crab, shellfish, oysters and snails, including crustacean tongs/picks and extraction implements all in 950 Massive Silver. Several pieces display pierced or engraved bowls and partially gilt/vermeil surfaces, demonstrating the extraordinary specialization of the service. The ensemble also contains substantial fish-serving pieces. Comparable Olier & Caron fish servers bearing the Minerva first-standard and the firm’s hallmark are documented independently in the French antiques market. Exceptional silver weight!! Net weight of solid silver: 13.258 kg — 13,258 grams. The stated figure represents the net silver weight, an especially important distinction given the presence of the 18 mother-of-pearl-handled knives. At a fineness of 950/1000, the stated silver weight corresponds theoretically to approximately 12.595 kg of pure silver content. Silversmith and hallmarks Maker: Olier & Caron, Paris Silver standard: 950/1000 Guarantee hallmark: French Minerva, 1st standard Maker’s mark: Olier & Caron Period: first third of the 20th century