Lot Essay
The earliest known basket in this shell form, by Paul de Lamerie, is now in the collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Other baskets of this form were produced by William Cripps, Thomas Heming and particularly Phillips (or Phillip) Garden, whose mark appears on the largest number of baskets of this design. Garden's mark appears on many works similar to Lamerie's, and it has been suggested that he and silversmith Henry Hayens bought Lamerie's patterns after his death in 1752.
Christopher Hartop cites the following baskets with Garden's mark: one of 1750 at Polesden Lacey, Surrey, one of 1751 in the Royal Collection, a pair dating to 1754 in a European collection, another dating to 1754 sold Christie's, London, 12 July 1995, lot 119, and one of 1755 illustrated in Christopher Hartop, The Huguenot Legacy, 1996, pp. 234-35, no. 51.
Christopher Hartop cites the following baskets with Garden's mark: one of 1750 at Polesden Lacey, Surrey, one of 1751 in the Royal Collection, a pair dating to 1754 in a European collection, another dating to 1754 sold Christie's, London, 12 July 1995, lot 119, and one of 1755 illustrated in Christopher Hartop, The Huguenot Legacy, 1996, pp. 234-35, no. 51.