MARK OF ROBERT BARBEDOR, JERSEY AND GUERNSEY, CIRCA 1680

Robert Barbedor is probably one of the most distinguished silversmiths working in the Channel Islands in the last half of the 17th century. He was presumably one of the thousands of Huguenots, French Protestants, who fled persecution in France, following the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes. Many of this refugees were skilled craftsmen and artists who spread out around Europe, settling in the Low Countries, Great Britain and the Channel Islands. Barbedor is known to have entered a mark in Paris (H. Nocq, Le Poinçon de Paris, Paris, 1928) and it is believed that his wife took over his mark following his death in July 1680.

Perhaps Barbedor's most ambitious work is a punch bowl of circa 1680, engraved for Edouard Dumaresq (Christie's London, 25 June 1975, lot 113). Other recorded examples of his work include a platter presented to St. Helier's church and a wine cup, perhaps the present examples (in R. Mayne, Channel Islands Silver, Oxford, 1985, p. 34).