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A FRENCH GOLD AND LAPIS-LAZULI FIVE-PIECE TEA AND COFFEE SERVICE MARK OF BOUCHERON, PARIS, 1909, 18CT. In the Louis XV style, comprising a teapot, coffee-pot, milk-jug, sugar bowl and cover, and a pair of sugar tongs, each on spreading gadrooned base, the bombé bodies each chased on the lower part with a band of foliage and in the centre with a ribbon-tied laurel garland, holding a foliate medallion centred by a winged putto, the fluted narrow collar with geometric border, the lapis-lazuli mounted handles with ram's mask terminal on the coffee-pot, teapot and milk-jug, the covers with cast rose finial, the sugar tongs applied with monogram ZZ, marked on bases, collars and covers and engraved underneath 'Boucheron Paris' the coffee pot 7 1/8 in. (18 cm.) high gross weight 110 oz. 6 dwt. (3,431 gr.) The monogram is for Sir Basil Zaharoff, G.C.B. (1849-1936).
Sir Basil Zaharoff, G.C.B. (1849-1936) and by descent.
BASIL ZAHAROFF
Sir Basil Zaharoff, G.C.B. (1849-1936) was an immensely wealthy Greek industrialist. Born Zacharias Basileios Zacharoff Mugla, Anatolia, the only son and eldest of the four children of Basilius Zacharoff (d.1878) of Constantinople, a notary, commodity dealer, and importer of attar of roses, and his wife, Helena Antonides (d.1879). Although he started his career as a tour guide, by 1872 he was working in London where he married Emily Ann Burrows, daughter of John Burrows, builder, of Bristol. That same year, he was prosecuted for embezzlement of merchandise worth £1,000 and securities exceeding £6,000. After his release on bail in 1873, he fled to Cyprus, where he set up as a storekeeper and contractor. In 1881, he settled in the USA and became interested in ranches and railroad-building. After a bigamous marriage to an heiress, Jeannie Frances Billings, in New York in 1885, he assumed the name of Basil Zaharoff.
Zaharoff later became a very successful trader in armaments; but he also invested in other ventures, such as the Express Bank, a bureau-de-change he founded in 1891, or L'Union Parisienne des Banques traditionally associated with heavy industry, the Excelsior, the popular French daily newspaper as well as a company that was a predecessor to oil giant British Petroleum as he foresaw a great future for the oil business.
He also entertained close relationships with state leaders that brought him not only enemies but also titles and medals. In order to indulge his friendship with Prince Louis II of Monaco, Zaharoff bought the debt-ridden Société des Bains de Mer, which ran Monte Carlo's famous casino. It was the principal source of revenue for the principality, which he succeeded in returning to profit. At the same time, Zaharoff had prevailed upon Clemenceau to ensure that the Treaty of Versailles included protection of Monaco’s rights as established in 1641. This close relationship with France had led him to take French citizenship in 1908 and he lived sumptuously in Paris at 41 avenue Foche and subsequently at number 53.
In September 1924, Zaharoff, then aged 74, married María del Pilar Antonia Angela Patrocinio Fermina Simona de Muguiro y Beruete, 1st Duchess de Villafranca de los Caballeros, who had previously married Francisco María Isabel de Borbón y Borbón, Duke of Marchena, a cousin of the King of Spain Alfonso XII; she was reputed to be one of the richest women in Spain. About eighteen months after their marriage, she tragically died from an infection, which also made Zaharoff dangerously ill. After her death, he adopted her two surviving daughters and began selling his business assets and drafting his memoirs. Upon his death Zaharoff's country house, the Chateau de Balincourt, at Arronville near Paris, formerly the property of King Leopold II of Belgium, which Zaharoff had filled with works of art, passed to the third daughter of his wife, Maria de los Angelos de Borbón y de Muguiro (1895