ADAM'S Country House Collections Day II - 14th October 2025

35 Country House Collections|13 th - 14 th October 2025 Paul de Lamerie was born in the immediate aftermath of this persecution in his adoptive country of Holland. At age 11 the young de Lamerie and his family moved to England and set- tled in Berwick Street, Soho. The boy was apprenticed to Peter (Pierre) Platel (c.1664-1719) of Lille in 1703, another Huguenot goldsmith who fled to Flanders in 1685 and later England. Platel was one of the earliest of dispossessed group to create a live- lihood for himself in England, along with Peter Harache (1630- 1700) and David Willaume (c.1658-c.1741) of Metz and the lesser documented Jean Tijou (f.1689 -1712). Paul de Lamerie was part of a second generation of refugee artisans along with his contemporaries Paul Crespin (1694-1770), Peter Harache II (1653-1717) and David Willaume II (1693-1761). From Platel’s instruction, de Lamerie excelled and entered his first mark as a large worker in 1713 and three years later was named Gold- smith to the King in 1716. De Lamerie’s reputation as one of England’s finest artisans is inextricably linked to the emergence of the restrained Régence and later the opulent Rococo style for which he is recognised as a principal exemplar in England alongside Paul Crespin with whom he collaborated frequently. His work however main- tained aspects of the Huguenot taste which favoured large, im- pressive pieces with balanced forms and plain bodies intended for Heraldic engraving, as in the example of this pair of sauce boats presented here. The combination of the strong natural- istic forms of the scallop shell and volutes and the beautifully moulded lion paw feet with the economic use of decoration on the body is a good example of the juncture between restraint and opulence in these opposing modes of decoration. De Lamerie’s success as both an artisan and a shrewd business- man is well documented as in the excerpt below of his obituary in the General Advertiser dated 9th of August 1751. It should be noted that in spite of a marked lack of respect for the authority of the Guilds, his skill was unparalleled by all except Crespin and so his output rarely faltered. He did incur a number of fines in his career for neglecting to hallmark items and in another case amending his hallmark and forgetting to inform the Assay office he had done so. Perhaps the most infamous of his offences was an incident with a young chimney sweep, who having found a jewel lost in the street, brought the ornament to de Lamerie for valuation and when he received it back found that the master’s apprentice had pilfered the gemstones from its setting for use in the studio and returned the empty setting to the boy with a paltry estimate of three halfpence. The boy took de Lamerie to court and the result was the action in Trover Armory vs La- mairie of 1722, which the chimneysweep Armory miraculous- ly won. The case serves as a primary example of the personal property law and finder’s rights. Despite these indiscretions it appears de Lamerie was well liked and his reputation as En- gland’s greatest silversmith of the 18th century is uncontested. ‘Last night the corpse of Mr de Lamerie, Silverworker to His Maj- esty, was interr’d in a handsome manner in St Ann’s Church, Soho. His corpse was follow’d to the grave by a number of real Mourners, for he was a good man, and his Behaviour in and out of Business gained him Friends.’ Stephanie Brennan, September 2025 LOT 484