Paul de Lamerie

Paul de Lamerie (9 April 1688–1 August 1751) was the best-known English silversmith of his generation. the Victoria & Albert Museum describes him as the "greatest silversmith working in England in the 18th century". Though his mark raises the market value of silver, his output was large and not all his pieces are outstanding. The volume of work bearing De Lamerie's mark makes it almost certain that he subcontracted orders to other London silversmiths before applying his own mark.

Early and private life

De Lamerie was born in 's-Hertogenbosch in the United Provinces (now the Netherlands), the son of a minor French nobleman, Paul Souchay de la Merie. His Huguenot parents had left France following the Edict of Fontainebleau in 1685. His father became an officer in the army of William III of Orange and moved to London in 1689 in the Glorious Revolution, but died a pauper in 1735.

He married Louisa Juliott on 11 February 1717. They had two sons and four daughters together; three daughters survived. He died in London and was buried at St Anne's Church, Soho.

Career

In August 1703, De Lamerie became the apprentice of a London goldsmith of Huguenot origin, Pierre Platel. De Lamerie opened his own workshop in 1713 and was appointed goldsmith to George I in 1716. He worked in partnership with Ellis Gamble - formerly the apprentice master of William Hogarth - between 1723 and 1728. His early work is in the simply Queen Anne styles, following classical French models, but Lamerie is noted for his elaborate Rococo style from the 1730s, particularly the richly-decorated works of an unidentified craftsman, the Maynard Master.

His customers included Tsarinas Anna and Catherine, Count Aleksey Bobrinsky, Sir Robert Walpole, the Earl of Ilchester, the Earl of Thanet, Viscount Tyrconnel, the Duke of Bedford, and other members of the English upper classes. He also worked for John V of Portugal before losing favour to the Germains in Paris. Amongst his production to the Portuguese Court was a huge solid silver bath tub lost in the great 1755 Lisbon earthquake.

He served on the committees of the Goldsmiths' Company but did not become its prime warden. He served as a captain and then major in the Westminster volunteer assocaiation.

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  Cup and Cover, made by Paul de Lamerie, 1736-7 Victoria and Albert Museum no. 819-1890
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  Lamerie's maker's mark for 1732 on underside of a Britannia gauge waiter

External links

• Paul de Lamerie
• http://www.christies.com/features/2010-may-the-greatest-goldsmith-732-1.aspx
• http://www.collectorsweekly.com/articles/the-four-georges-notes-on-english-domestic-silver/

References

• Philippa Glanville, ‘Lamerie, Paul Jacques de (1688–1751)’, rev. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 accessed
• P.A.S. Phillips, Paul de Lamerie, London 1935.
• John F. Hayward, Huguenot Silver in England, 1688—1727. London 1959.