A Spectacular Silver Brazier by Paul de Lamerie, London 1745
Silver,
London, 1745
Maker's mark of Paul de Lamerie
Diameter: 20cm
Weight: 860 grams (27.6 oz.)

This is a rare and striking example of a piece made by the master silversmith, Paul De Lamerie. The four lions faces that appear on the side of the brazier are of the most exceptional and striking quality. Unlike the conventional lions heads which are seen on other silver pieces of the period these are completely out of the ordinary in terms of their realism and expression. This is a phenomenal piece of table ware that deserves to be seen as much more than simply a brazier.

Artist Biography:
Paul de Lamerie arrived in England with his Huguenot parents in or before 1689, having been baptiszed at 's Hertogenbosch in the Netherlands in 1688. In 1703 he was apprenticed to the Huguenot goldsmith Pierre Platel, and after being admitted to the freedom of the Goldsmiths' Company, he registered his first mark and set up a workshop in Windmill Street, Soho, in 1712. He took thirteen apprentices between 1715 and 1749 who paid premiums varying between £10 and £45m In 1716 he married Louisa Juliott, also a Huguenot, and by her had six children, three of whom died in childhood. Little more of his personal history is known, although his career in the Goldsmiths' Company is comparatively well documented. By 1717, he was already referred to as 'the King's Silversmith' but again in a complaint 'for making and selling Great quantities of Large Plate which he doth not bring to Goldsmith's Hall to be mark't according to Law.' He joined the livery in 1717; fourteen years later he was elected to the court of assistants. In 1743 he was appointed fourth warden and in 1747 second warden; that he never became prime warden probably due to ill health. From the outset he had wealthy clients such as the Honourable George Treby and the Duke of Sutherland. Among his more important later patrons were Sir Robert Walpole, Baron Anson, and the fifth Earl of Mountrath. A gradual expansion of his business culminated in his move in 1739 to considerably larger premises in Gerrard street. His pre-eminent position in the trade is signified by the commission he received in 1740 from the Goldsmiths' Company to provide two of their most splendid pieces of ceremonial display plate, a silver-gilt inkstand (Grimwade 1974, pl. 86B) and the famous rococo ewer and dish (fig. 64A and B)