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Huguenot silver: Paul de Lamarie 1730s

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The first London coffee house was opened in 1652 by Pasqua Roseé, a member the English Levant Co. that traded with Turkey. In Smyrna-Izmir, he found a taste for the dark stim­ulant drink. With time, each British coffee house  developed its own partic­ul­ar clientele, literary, political, financial and shipping-related. From the coffee house came the Gentle­man’s Clubs and City instit­utions eg the in­sur­ance mar­ket Lloyds of London. King Charles II tried to close these meeting places down in 1675, but failed. In time, coffee was being consumed at home from silver and por­celain pots. It was usually served black and from long spouted ves­sels. There was also a fashion for taking it in the Turkish manner, with large quant­it­ies of sugar syrup used in the preparation. The short spout meant viscous liquid could flow freely.

de Lamerie
Sugar caster, 1732
Christie's

At a similar time in France, The Edict of Nantes (1598) had granted the Protestant Huguenots the right to practise their religion without persecution in Catholic France. But when these Protestants were finally exiled by King Louis XIV in 1685, they had to find safe homes in other countries. Superb Huguenot gold­­smiths set up business in London where aris­tocratic British patrons flock­ed to them.

Pierre Har­ache
 arrived in 1681 and Simon Pantin worked in Lon­don from 1682. After the 1685 ex­puls­ion, David Willaume & Daniel Garn­ier got papers in 1687, Augustine Courtauld arrived in 1688. John Chartier was in Lon­don by 1688 but didn’t ob­­tain denis­at­ion papers until 1697. Phillip Rollos was in the 1690 den­is­ation list. Louis Mett­ay­er was ap­prent­ic­ed in 1693; Pierre Platel arrived with William III in 1688, but ap­­peared with Louis Cuny in 1697 papers. Jacob & Samuel Margas were apprent­ic­ed 1699, Isaac Liger 1700 & Simon Pantin 1701; then the Arch­ambo and Tan­qu­er­ay families. I researched these beautiful men during a 3 years thesis, and will never forget them.

In their adopted country, the Huguenots rallied around to protect their silver industry. And they showed a sustained pre­ference for marry­ing and app­rent­ic­ing their child­ren into other French fam­il­ies. John Chartier married into the Garnier goldsmith family and his daughter married the goldsmith Peze’ Pilleau; Louis Mettayer’s sis­ter married David Wil­laume and his daught­er married Piere Har­ache; David Tanqueray was Willaume’s ap­pren­tice and later his son-in-law; Simon Pantin was apprent­iced to Piere Harache; Aug­ustine Court­auld was ap­prenticed to Simon Pantin; Edward Feline to Cour­­t­auld; John Le Sage to Louis Cuny; Louis Mett­ayer and Dav­id Tan­qu­er­ay were brothers in law of the engraver Simon Gribelin.

Royal appointments amongst silver artists, both locals and immig­r­ants, were vital. Englishmen George Garth­orne was roy­al Goldsmith to William III and Queen Anne; and Thomas Farren was a Subordinate Goldsmith to the King George I, 1723-42. From the Hug­uenot com­mun­ity, Phillip Rollos I was Subordinate Goldsmith to William III and to Queen Anne; his son Philip Rollos II succeeded as Sub­ord­in­ate Gold­­smith to Queen Anne; and John Le Sage became Sub­ord­inate Gold­smith to the King George.

de Lamerie's cup and cover, 1735
classical Huguenot lines and limited added decoration.
V&A Museum

So who was Paul de Lamerie (1688–1751)? He migrated to London as a small child with his par­ents as refugees. Paul de Lamerie was ap­pren­ticed to Pierre Platel in 1703, becoming free of his master in 1711 and quite young when he became goldsmith to the King from 1716. Paul’s success lay in his classical creativity eg wine cool­er, but also in his ability as a business­man 1730s-50s. A de Lam­erie silver gilt sugar caster, decor­ated with the royal coat of arms, is now at the Wor­shipful Co. of Gold­smiths.

Huguenot silver artists created severely sym­met­ri­c­al Queen Anne or­n­­ament in class­ical taste. It was said that it was not until de Lamerie in­troduced the double scroll handle in 1723 that the gen­eral effect was made much less formal and pond­er­ous. The broken scroll truly did have a softening effect, but it is not true that de Lamerie introduced this element in 1723. A series of cups by Rollos came out in the 1712-15 period, all displaying flam­boyant double harp hand­les cast with bead­ing and foliage, a style repeated by Samuel Marg­is in 1721. Pantin (1713) and Rain­aud (1715) both ut­il­ised more stol­id double harp shaped handles, while de Lamerie favoured the softer double scroll handle in 1720.

Elaborate cast mouldings revealed how de Lamerie, like other gold­smiths, was moving away from the simpler decoration favoured by the earlier Huguenot generation. They moved to the much more ornate Ro­coco style that be­came popular in London during the 1730s and 40s.

de Lamerie’s works have been valued above other Huguenot or English silver artists for a very long time, but I was keen to see the re­s­ults of  a de Lamerie auction. In July 2013 Christ­ie’s London presented a Rococo coffee pot 1738. The silver coffee-pot was creat­ed in the George II era, richly decor­at­ed with char­act­eristic Rococo motifs - bold scroll work, flowers and shells. (27 cm high). The cof­fee pot was commissioned by London-based trader, successful mer­ch­ant and Huguenot, Sir John Lequesne (1687-1741). Lequesne and his wife Mary Knight married in 1738, the very date of the coffee pot. So now the question is: who was Lequesne?

de Lamerie's coffee pot, 1738
curvy rococo lines and rich decorations
auctioned at Christie’s in London in 2013
sold for £3.5 million–£4.5 million.

As a child, Lequesne mov­ed to Britain as a refugee with his brot­her, flee­ing Rouen like many of his fellow Protestants. The Le­ques­ne brothers pros­pered, trading with the West Indies. John became an Alderman of the City, a dir­ect­or of the Bank of Eng­land and was knighted by King George II in 1737. A successful mar­riage, with a HUGE dowry, and an equally successful career enabled him thrive.

The new French Rococo style, the beautifully engraved Lequesne arms and owner­ship by a succ­ess­ful merchant perfectly embodied the vibrant C18th trade in London.



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