tfboys之未婚妻张子枫:Paul de Lamerie Goldsmith & Silversmith 1688 1751

I have enjoyed putting together an outline of this exceptional British Goldsmith and Silversmith. Paul de Lamerie’s life was vast and incredibly interesting. He was second genreation Huguenot refugee, throughout the years of hard work and determination, became a leading exponent of the rococo style,a large number of his most important pieces can be viewed in museums throughout the world such as The Victoria and Albert Musuem in London and the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles.

 
In 1685 his family was a victim of The revocation of the Edict of Nantes, 
driven out of France to the safety of the Netherlands. 
In 1598 an Edict was made, a formal authoritative proclamation, 
establishing Catholics and Protestants could work and live side by side in France. 
It decreed French Protestants (The Huguenots) giving them civil rights, 
in a predominantly Catholic country and for many years succeding in bringing peace and unity. 
Unfortunately however Louis XIV renounced the edict and declared Protestantism illegal.
The Protestants fled, within days France lost many of its most skilled and hard-working individuals. 
It is estimated that between 150, 000 to 170,000 Huguenots travelled to such places as 
Switzerland, the USA, Germany, and Amsterdam and the UK. 
London which alone attracted some 50,000 immigrants. 
They were haidressers, wig makers, Furriers, boot and shoe makers, perfumers, jewellers,
and gunsmiths. Among these imigrants were Silversmiths who brought sophisticated and 
advanced designs and techniques. The use of heavier gauge silver, adorned with more 
elaborate relief and engraved decoration.

London which alone attracted some 50,000 immigrants. They were haidressers, wig makers, Furriers, boot and shoe makers, perfumers, jewellers, and gunsmiths. Among these imigrants were Silversmiths who brought sophisticated and advanced designs and techniques. The use of heavier gauge silver, adorned  with more elaborate relief and engraved decoration.

de Lamerie's father, also Paul, was himself a minor aristocrat and on reaching Bois-le-Duc, a town in the Netherlands, became an army officer in the service of William of Orange. It ss believed that his son it was born there. In 1689 the family chose to follow William of Orange to England during the Glorious Revolution of 1688 and by 1691 were living in London’s Soho, the district having been taken over mostly by French Huguenot refugees.

There is little known of the early life of Paul de Lamerie. However, records at the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths in London, an entry for August 6, 1703, which reveals he was apprenticed to Pierre Platel “Citizen and Goldsmith of London, for the term of seven years from this day".                                                                                                              

Platel (1664-1719), was from an aristocratic family in Lorraine, there is little known about when or where he had aquired his Gold and Silversmithing skills, but it is believed that he have learnt his trade probably before his arrival in England. He  registered his mark by Redemption, i.e by payment rather than by serving his apprentiship at Goldsmiths' Hall in 1699.  A leading craftsman and member of the London Huguenot silversmithing community, a French expatriate group known for its advanced technical expertise. Based on Platel’s tutelage and guided by an innate talent, Lamerie created silver of exceptional craftsmanship; in 1711 he worked on as a journeyman with Platel while he saved money and made arrangements to receive his freedom by service.  When Platel died in 1719 de Lamerie no doubt took over his workshop and his clients.

de Lamerie became a Freeman of the City of London in 1712 and registered his mark the same year. Less than four years later, had established him sufficiently to open a shop and workshop at the sign of the Golden Ball in Windmill Street. Taking on 13 apprentices between the periods of 1716 to 1749. His stock now included jewellery as well as Silverware of which he continued to make traditional plain designs of the English Queen Anne style.

On 7th February 1716 at the age of 28, de Lamerie married Louisa Juliott of St. Giles in the Fields aged 21, (it is mentioned that de Lamerie’s wife was the daughter of Pierre Platel but proves to be incorrect due to the fact that he had applied, through the Vicar-General’s office, to the Archbishop of Canterbury for what today would be called a special marriage licence.) over the period of thirteen years, six children were born, Margaret, Mary, Paul, Daniel, Susannah, Louisa Elizabeth, of these both boys and the eldest daughter died before reaching the age of five. An all too common occurrence of the time.

In 1731, de Lamerie was invited to join the governing body of the Goldsmiths' Company, by which time he was enjoying huge success. Commissions came from Royalty and all the wealthiest European families, including Sir Robert Walpole, called "the first British Prime Minister" (1721-42), for whom Lamerie made first the square salver, engraved with the Second Exchequer Seal of George I. Also a remarkable number of Members of Parliament figure among Lamerie's customers.         All his most elaborate pieces date from this period.

Being a  shrewd businessman, sometimes to a fault. When Lamerie’s estranged father died, for instance, he was given only a pauper’s funeral despite his son’s considerable wealth. English law students still study the case of Amory v. de Lamerie involving a brooch brought into Lamerie’s shop for valuation that was returned to its owner without its gems.

On the 1^st June 1720 a new tax of sixpence an ounce was levied on all new plate, as a result of this new tax, a number of working Goldsmith’s including de Lamerie, adopted the practice of removing hallmarks from smaller objects, and incorporating them into heavier and more important pieces, thus avoiding both necessity of submitting them to be assayed or ‘touched’ and the payment of duty became known as ‘Duty – Dodgers’. Some two hundred years later the suspisions of the London Assay Office were aroused concerning the legality of an important basin and ewer made by de Lamerie was heated, a circle of Silver containing the hallmarks dropped out.

In the early 1730’s he was amongst the first to introduce the Rococo style to the English Aristocrats comes from the French word ‘rocaille’ - the rock and broken shell motifs, which formed part of Rococo design., incorporating elaborate and fantastical decoration, and asymmetry. A fine example of this style is the Mountrath Silver and Dish and Ewer. This can be viewed at the Gilbert Collection.  Somerset House.  London. Comprising of a helmet-shaped ewer, stands on a shaped circular foot chased with flowers, waves, and a lizard; the stem is modelled as a kneeling *putto. The body of the ewer is chased with a figure of Neptune in a seascape and with scrolls, clouds, and personifications of the winds; A coat of arms applied beneath the shaped lip. The handle is formed as a female demifigure rising from flowers and scrolls, holding a shell in her left hand. The large, shaped circular dish (with later applied) coat of arms to the centre, the border chased in high relief with a broad band of ornament incorporating figures of Jupiter, Diana, and two putti (a representation of a small child, often naked and having wings; *plural, putto), with elaborate surrounds of scrolls, masks, shells, and flowers. (Please see below)

Upon his death in 1751 de Lamerie  was left to be mourned by his widow and their three daughters.  His Will, a complicated document, (as he had no male heirs to continue his flourishing business,) directs his executors that Abraham Langford (1711 – 74), the celebrated playwright  and auctioneer of Covent Garden be employed to sell all his existing plate.

The will contained provisions for the future of his widow and two unmarried daughters out of rents received from two dwelling houses in Gerrard street, Soho, and his two leasehold houses in Haymarket.

The Will also mentions that his book keeper Isaac Gayles, for his long and faithfull services, bequeathed forty guineas. It was also stipulated that his journeymen Silvermiths, Frederick Knopfell and Samuel Collins, should receive a legacy of ￡15 and ￡20 respectively, on condition to remain in the employ of the excecutors until they could finish and make ready for sale all the unfinished plate in the workshop at the time of the death of de Lamerie. As executors he appointed his wife , and two Hugenot friends, Charles Fouace and John Malliet, to each of whom left 10 guineas ‘for a ring or what else they please.

Researched by Steve Carson