Lot Essay
The present lot was engraved for the marriage, on 8 October 1754, of Jane Noel, daughter of Baptist Noel, 4th Earl of Gainsborough, and Gerard Edwardes (c. 1734-1773) of Welham Grove, Leicester, illegitimate son of Mary Edwardes (d. 1743).
Frederick Knopfell was working as a journeyman with Paul de Lamerie at the time of Lamerie's death in 1751 and was listed in Lamerie's will as one of two silversmiths to complete any unfinished commissions. Only one mark for Knopfell was entered (11 April 1752), associated with an address at Little Windmill Street, St. James's, a street on which Lamerie once held a workshop. To that end, it is possible that Knopfell oversaw some portion of Lamerie's work that continued to take place at Little Windmill Street. (See Arthur Grimwade, London Goldsmiths 1697-1837 Their Marks and Lives, 1976, p. 573.)
The present basket was likely a product of Lamerie's former shop, as Lamerie is known to have used this model; an example of 1747 with the same moth and bee-clad openwork border, engraved with the arms of Henry Isaac (d. c. 1771), a London-based diamond merchant, sold Christie's, New York, 20 April 2000, lot 264.
Frederick Knopfell was working as a journeyman with Paul de Lamerie at the time of Lamerie's death in 1751 and was listed in Lamerie's will as one of two silversmiths to complete any unfinished commissions. Only one mark for Knopfell was entered (11 April 1752), associated with an address at Little Windmill Street, St. James's, a street on which Lamerie once held a workshop. To that end, it is possible that Knopfell oversaw some portion of Lamerie's work that continued to take place at Little Windmill Street. (See Arthur Grimwade, London Goldsmiths 1697-1837 Their Marks and Lives, 1976, p. 573.)
The present basket was likely a product of Lamerie's former shop, as Lamerie is known to have used this model; an example of 1747 with the same moth and bee-clad openwork border, engraved with the arms of Henry Isaac (d. c. 1771), a London-based diamond merchant, sold Christie's, New York, 20 April 2000, lot 264.