Tour d’Argent, the well-known Paris restaurant, is to sell more than 3,000 pieces of tableware, furniture and lots from its cellar of more than 350,000 bottles. The items are to be offered by French auction house Artcurial on May 9.The sale comes as the rooftop restaurant, which is constantly evolving, changes its logo, dishes and wine stocks. Its owner André Terrail said it was obvious that as renovations went on that it had accumulated “a large amount of porcelain, crystal, glass and silverware and also furniture which no longer has a relevant place today.”The sale also features objects from the Musée de la Table, a collection dedicated to the history of gastronomy, and a silver duck press estimated at as much as €6,000 (about $6,500). In 2003, the restaurant said that it had served its one-millionth duck.The tableware includes tablecloths, 120 of the Tour d’Argent’s trademark silver goblets with its symbol and some of its glasses: There are 18 different wine glasses and 4 Champagne flutes in use, made by the Austrian company Riedel.The cellar sale runs from Eaux de Vie, Calvados, Porto, and Armagnac. Some old Cognacs dating back to the 19th century will feature, with a top estimate of about €5,000. The oldest bottle is a Grande Fine Clos du Griffier Cognac from 1788, which is estimated at €20,000 to €21,000. According to sommelier David Ridgway, “it is surprising how young this Cognac tastes.”Artcurial has previously done similar sales for the Hotel Crillon and the Hotel Plaza Athénée in Paris, and the Hotel de Paris in Monaco, with such events raising some $11.4 million in the past two years.The restaurant boasts of a long history and says it was where Henri IV discovered the fork. Numbered among its regular customers were George Sand, Marcel Proust, and Salvador Dali. Many of the most famous people in the world have visited the destination restaurant when in Paris, including Marilyn Monroe, Orson Welles, Paul McCartney, Queen Elisabeth II and the Japanese Emperor Hirohito. It has a panoramic view over Notre Dame, l’île de la Cité and the river Seine.An exhibition of lots runs from May 6 through May 8 and the sale is on Monday May 9, 2016, at Artcurial, 7, Rond-Point des Champs-Elysées 75008 Paris.
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