Toilet Service: Salver (Judgement of Paris)

This silver toilet service once graced the dressing table of a lady. Elaborate sets like this served as symbols of wealth. The various caskets and boxes held combs, powders, and other types of cosmetics. The large salvers and rectangular boxes show scenes from the legend of Troy, an appropriate allusion for the decoration of items designed to enhance a woman's beauty. As she sat at her dressing table and applied her makeup, the lady might have paused to contemplate the tragic results of the Judgement of Paris, whose desire for a beautiful woman incited the ten-year Trojan War.