MARK OF PAUL DE LAMERIE, LONDON, 1746

Four chinoiserie tea caddy and sugar box designs by Paul de Lamerie are known. The earliest, dating to 1744, depicts the harvesting of sugar cane. An example is found in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The present lot, dating to 1746, depicts summer-houses and trees in the Chinese taste and matches two tea caddies, sold Christie's, London, 5 December 1917, lot 88 and 13 July 1921, lot 68. Two versions of Lamerie's third design, the tea picker motif, are found on caddies dated 1751 in The Jerome and Rita Gans Collection of English silver, at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts and illustrated in Christopher Hartop, The Huguenot Legacy, English silver 1680-1760 from the Alan and Simone Hartman Collection, 1996, no. 81.