Lot Essay
Pierre Platel arrived in England with his brother Claude, in the train of William III in 1688. His first mark was registered at the Goldsmith's Company on 28th June, 1699 as a largeworker, the address being Pall Mall. He appears to have stayed in the St James's area until his death in 1719 and was buried in St. James's, Piccadilly.
Paul de Lamerie became an apprentice to Platel in 1703 and today is regarded in higher esteem than his master. However, in P.A.S. Phillips, Paul de Lamerie, His Life and Work, 1935, p.15 and 16, he states, "It was to this great craftsman that Paul de Lamerie owed all his knowledge of his trade, and that he could not have had a better teacher can be incontrovertibly shown by the existing beautiful examples of the goldsmith's art that came from Platel's workshop". He continues, "specimens of his work show that not only was he a superb artist but also a craftsman with a profound knowledge of the medium in which he worked. Platel's beauty of line and delicacy of detail, and his finish in execution, were, in all instances that I can recall, beyond cavil, and it is no wonder that, under such a master, Paul de Lamerie gained a complete understanding and appreciation of the art in which later years he was to excel.
Certainly, these candlesticks show a complete command of the goldsmith's art and allied to their superb condition make them a great survival of the workshop of Paul de Lamerie's master.
Paul de Lamerie became an apprentice to Platel in 1703 and today is regarded in higher esteem than his master. However, in P.A.S. Phillips, Paul de Lamerie, His Life and Work, 1935, p.15 and 16, he states, "It was to this great craftsman that Paul de Lamerie owed all his knowledge of his trade, and that he could not have had a better teacher can be incontrovertibly shown by the existing beautiful examples of the goldsmith's art that came from Platel's workshop". He continues, "specimens of his work show that not only was he a superb artist but also a craftsman with a profound knowledge of the medium in which he worked. Platel's beauty of line and delicacy of detail, and his finish in execution, were, in all instances that I can recall, beyond cavil, and it is no wonder that, under such a master, Paul de Lamerie gained a complete understanding and appreciation of the art in which later years he was to excel.
Certainly, these candlesticks show a complete command of the goldsmith's art and allied to their superb condition make them a great survival of the workshop of Paul de Lamerie's master.