Lot Essay
Eliza Godfrey, daughter of the distinguished Huguenot silversmith Simon Pantin, was one of the leading women silversmiths of the 18th century. Her first husband Abraham Buteux was both a silversmith and a Huguenot. It was after his death that she registered her first mark in 1731. Less than a year later she married her second husband Benjamin Godfrey in 1732. A. G. Grimwade suggests in London Goldsmith's 1697-1837, London, 1982, p. 524., that Benjamin had been working for Eliza as a journeyman at the time of their marriage. He died in 1741 when Eliza entered her own mark once more. Her clients included H.R.H. The Duke of Cumberland and many members of the aristocracy, as recorded on her trade card illustrated in P. Glanville and J. Fauldes Goldsborough, Women Silversmiths 1685-1845, Washington D.C., 1990, p.21., where she is described as 'the outstanding woman goldsmith of the 18th century'.