Lot Essay
The arms are those of Conolly.
Paul de Lamerie made a group of about ten nearly identical raffia pattern cake baskets, all with the date letter for 1731. The present basket is virtually identical to an example that sold in these rooms, October 18, 1995, lot 33. Other examples are in the Gilbert Collection, the Ashmolean Museum, and the Alan and Simone Hartman Collection of Huguenot Silver, currently on exhibit at the Indianapolis Museum of Art.
Baskets in this group are characterized by the fine quality of their engraving. The engraved border on the present example is identical to the border on a Lamerie basket with the arms of Belasyse, sold in the Walter P. Chrysler sale, Parke Bernet Galleries, New York, October 18, 1956, lot 138 (Silver at Partridge, October 1996, no. 8, illus. p. 17). It has been suggested that the baskets were engraved in the workshop of Ellis Gamble, with whom Lamerie served his apprenticeship. Lamerie and Gamble shared premises between 1723 and 1728, and their working relationship continued after this. In 1732, the year after this group of baskets was made, Gamble was declared bankrupt with Lamerie as the petitioning creditor.
Paul de Lamerie made a group of about ten nearly identical raffia pattern cake baskets, all with the date letter for 1731. The present basket is virtually identical to an example that sold in these rooms, October 18, 1995, lot 33. Other examples are in the Gilbert Collection, the Ashmolean Museum, and the Alan and Simone Hartman Collection of Huguenot Silver, currently on exhibit at the Indianapolis Museum of Art.
Baskets in this group are characterized by the fine quality of their engraving. The engraved border on the present example is identical to the border on a Lamerie basket with the arms of Belasyse, sold in the Walter P. Chrysler sale, Parke Bernet Galleries, New York, October 18, 1956, lot 138 (Silver at Partridge, October 1996, no. 8, illus. p. 17). It has been suggested that the baskets were engraved in the workshop of Ellis Gamble, with whom Lamerie served his apprenticeship. Lamerie and Gamble shared premises between 1723 and 1728, and their working relationship continued after this. In 1732, the year after this group of baskets was made, Gamble was declared bankrupt with Lamerie as the petitioning creditor.