Michel Lacoste's Donation: Precious Metalwork from Pierre Mangot to Jean-Elisee Puiforcat

Michel Lacoste's collection began with a sale catalogue. His maternal grandmother gave him the catalogue of the Puiforcat collection, and the youngest son of tennis player René Lacoste went on to collect French silver from the 2000s. A hundred pieces, a quarter of it, now belong to the Louvre. If your only Lacoste is a polo shirt with a crocodile on it, this is the family's other collection.

You find them inside the cases of room 605, mixed in with the Louvre's own silver and faience. A visitor on the Connaissances de Versailles forum noted they stand on blue bases, which is how you tell them apart. The spread is lopsided: one 16th-century piece, 22 from the 17th century, 76 from the 18th and one from the 20th. The 17th-century group adds most, with makers the Louvre didn't own before, such as Jean-Baptiste Chéret.

The museum gives it 15 minutes, in the Sully wing on level 1, and entry is included in the Louvre ticket.