MARK OF PAUL DE LAMERIE, LONDON, 1744

Paul de Lamerie
Paul de Lamerie is rightly seen as the greatest silversmith working in Britain in the 18th century; his works have been prized above all others for the last two hundred and fifty years. His obituary published in the London Evening Post following his death in 1751 celebrated him for being 'famous in making fine ornamental plate'. When the names of other silversmiths were forgotten his lived on, his work inspiring the silversmiths of the rococo revival in the early 19th century and being widely coveted by leading silver collectors since the 19th century. When Christie's sold the magnificent silver collection of the late Duke of Sussex (1773-1843), sixth son of King George III, in 1843, the description of a tea urn was ornamented with the note that it was 'in the beautiful taste of Paul L'Emery'.

His work was the subject of a monograph by P. A. S. Phillips published in 1935 and a ground-breaking exhibition dedicated to his work at the Goldsmiths' Hall, London in 1990. The research for the 1990 exhibition catalogue and subsequent work by Ellenor Alcorn, late of the Metropolitan Museum, New York and now Chair and Curator of European Decorative Arts at the Art Institute of Chicago, the art historian and silversmith Ubaldo Vitali and the author and art historian Maureen Cassidy-Geiger for the Cahn Collection catalogue, and many others has resulted in a wealth of information and analysis of the master and his work.

In common with a number of the greatest and most inventive silversmiths working in London in the 18th century Lamerie was of French Huguenot parentage. He was apprenticed to the fellow Huguenot, Pierre Platel, of Pall Mall in 1703, becoming free of his master in 1711. Within six years he was being described as 'the King's Silversmith'. He was admitted into the Livery of the Company in 1717. During his long career Lamerie supplied many of the powerful aristocrats of the time but the international nature of London and the wealth of its merchant class is attested by the many commissions he received from rich London based traders.