MARK OF PAUL DE LAMERIE, LONDON, 1732

SHELL DISHES BY PAUL DE LAMERIE

‘One of the surpassing wonders of de Lamerie’s creation' was P. A. S. Phillips description of Lamerie's shell dishes in his seminal monograph on Paul de Lamerie. His continued to comment on the Earl Spencer's shell, 'If this piece were not made of silver we could imagine that we were beholding a veritable shell with its encrustacions taken direct from the bed of the sea'¹. Lamerie’s shell dishes epitomise the Rococo obession with natural forms. His fascination with this concept and in particular with crustacea and marine life is evident in the development of his designs for shell dishes, which he produced from the 1710s, to one of his most celebrated works, the 1750 tureen in the form of a green turtle, possibly commissioned by John Hill² and sold by a descendant, Christie’s, London, 9 July 1997, lot 179, now in the Cahn Collection, St. Louis.³

Recorded examples of shells dishes produced by the de Lamerie's workshop extend over a thirty year period, and attest to the form's enduring popularity with his patrons.

1719, a set of three:
With Martin & Co. Ltd., Cheltenham, Connoisseur, no. 118, December 1946, advertisement p. xxx.
1724, a set of three:
The Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, B. Carver Wees, English, Irish and Scottish Silver at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, New York, 1997, no. 97, pp. 176-8.
1732, a pair: the present lot.
1733, a set of four:
Exhibited, London, Goldsmith’s Hall, Paul de Lamerie, 16 May to 22 June 1990, cat. no. 76; The Jaime Ortiz-Patino Collection; Sotheby’s, New York, 22 April, 1998, lot 13.
1733, a pair:
Lady Leveson; Christie’s, London, 16 September 1942, lot 49, £115 to How.
1734, a set of four:
one pair, Alfred Duane Pell Bequest, The Metropolitan Museum, New York.
one pair, Jerome and Rita Gans Collection, The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.
1738, a single example: removed from 6 Ilchester Place; Christie’s, London, 18 June 1941, lot 40, £21 to Mrs Hamilton Browne.
1742, a pair: Mrs M. A. S. Veysey; Sotheby’s, London, 17 June 1971, lot 175, £3,200 to S. J. Phillips.
1745, a pair: Mrs M. A. S. Veysey, Sotheby’s, London, 17 June 1971, lot 176, £2,100, now in The Thyssen Collection.
1748, a single example: The Earl Spencer, illustrated in P. A. S. Phillips, op. cit., p. 110, pls. CLVI-CLVIL.
1748, a pair: Assheton-Bennett Bequest, 1979, Manchester City Art Gallery.

BUTTER, OYSTERS OR SWEETMEATS?

Dishes of this form, modelled on the scallop shell (pecten maximus), have been described as butter dishes in later inventories, however, 18th century records and recipes suggest the serving of oysters, sweetmeats or pickles are more likely. A 1740 entry in the ledgers of the goldsmith George Wickes lists ‘5 Scollops for Oysters’, sold to John Trevor, Esq.⁴

Robert Smith 'Cook (under Mr. Lamb) to King William III as also to the Dukes of Buckingham, Ormond, D'Aumont (the French Ambassador) and others of Nobility and Gentry' published a recipe 'To Grill Oysters' in his 1723 publication Court Cookery or The Compleat English Cook. His instructions read, 'Lay a piece of Sweet Butter at the Bottom of your Silver Scallop Shell; then get a quantity of Large Oysters, and cut off the fins; put four in a shell, with some of their own liquor strain'd, grated Bread, a little Salt, Pepper, and a Spoonfull of White-Wine, and cover them with grated Bread, and set them over your stove to stew, and hold over them your Browning-Iron; half an Hour will stew them.⁵
In 1944 Commander G. E. P. How⁶ proposed they were used for sweetmeats in an article in his Notes on Antique Silver. Philippa Glanville, former keeper of Metalwork at the Victoria and Albert Museum has suggested that when used in combination with a centrepiece they may have been for sauces or relishes, oyster sauce being a popualr condiment to serve with roast beef.⁷ Similar porcelain models from later in the 18th century were termed ‘pickle dishes’ reflecting changing tastes of cuisine and the fashion for French inspired pickled fruits and vegetables.

LORD SWAYTHLING AND OTHER RENOWNED PAUL DE LAMERIE COLLECTORS

A ‘superb and very elegant’ tea urn, two feet high, was a highlight of the sale of the Duke of Sussex’s silver collection sold at Christie’s in 1843. According to Arthur Grimwade this was probably the first printed reference to de Lamerie after his death in 1751, the catalogue referring to him as ‘Paul L’Emery’. Christie’s sale of Admiral Anson's silver, a prolific patron of de Lamerie, in 1893 included nearly sixty lots by de Lamerie. The present shell dishes probably formed part of the distinguished collection of Sir Samuel Montagu, 1st Baron Swaythling. Sir Samuel had loaned over fifty pieces, ‘Chiefly the work of Paul Lamerie’, to the 1902 St. James’s Court exhibition (op. cit.) and much of the Swaythling collection had also been exhibited ‘for many years’ at the Victoria and Albert Museum before being sold at Christie’s, 6 May 1924. The 1924 sale included twenty-nine lots by de Lamerie although these shells were retained by Lord Swaythling for his London residence at 12 Kensington Palace Gardens (op. cit. Inventory of Works of Art…, 1911) before being offered together with fourteen further pieces by de Lamerie at Christie’s, 17 July 1946, including these shell dishes as lot 79: ‘Two escallop shells, with chased backs and shell feet – by Paul Lamerie, 1732 (weight 13 oz.)’.

1 P. A. S. Phillips, Paul de Lamerie, Citizen and Goldsmith of London, London, 1935, p. 110, pls. CLVI and CLVII.
2. A. Phillips, 'Turtle Surfaces', Silver Society Journal 9 (1997), pp. 616-7.
3. E. Alcorn, Beyond the Maker’s Mark, Paul de Lamerie Silver in the Cahn Collection, Cambridge, 2006, cat. no. 46, pp. 117-120.
4. M. Clayton, The Collector's Dictionary of the Silver & Gold of Great Britain & North America, London, 1971, p. 122.
5. P. Glanville, Silver, History and Design, London, 1997, p. 43.
6. Commander G. E. P. How, 'First Class Only', Notes on Antique Silver 4, 1944-45.
7. P. Glanville, Silver in England, London, 1987, p. 98.