Juste-Aurèle Meissonnier (1695-1750) was the greatest goldsmith and silversmith of Louis XV’s royal court. He also designed porcelain soup tureens that were often embellished with the creatures found in the soup, such as rabbits or crayfish. Meissonnier’s works later inspired artists of the style called “art nouveau,” such as Hector Guimard, in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
