MARK OF PAUL DE LAMERIE, LONDON, 1742

SHELL DISHES BY PAUL DE LAMERIE
P. A. S. Phillips, in his monograph Paul de Lamerie: His Life and Work, London, 1935, reprinted 1969, illustrates a similar shell of 1748 from the collection of Earl Spencer, plates CLVI and CLVII. He comments, it is '...one of the surpassing wonders of de Lamerie's creation. If this piece were not made of silver we could imagine that we were holding a veritable shell with its encrustations taken direct from the bed of the sea'.

Lamerie’s shell dishes epitomise the Rococo obsessions 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 Hill, as quoted in A. Phillips, 'Turtle Surfaces', Silver Society Journal 9, 1997, pp. 616-617, and sold by a descendant, Christie’s, London, 9 July 1997, lot 179, now in the Cahn Collection, St Louis, Missouri, (see E. Alcorn, Beyond the Maker’s Mark, Paul de Lamerie Silver in the Cahn Collection, Cambridge, 2006, cat. no. 46, pp. 117-120).

Recorded examples of shell dishes produced by 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: Rt. Hon. Lord Swaythling, removed from Townhill Park, Southampton, sold, Christie's, London, 17 July 1946, lot 79, £165 to Crichton; sold again The Exceptional sale, Christie's, London, 7 July 2022, lot 4.
1733, a set of four:
Exhibited, London, Goldsmiths' Hall, Paul de Lamerie, 16 May to 22 June 1990, cat. no. 76; The Jaime Ortiz-Patiño 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, the present lot: Mrs M. A. S. Veysey; Sotheby’s, London, 17 June 1971, lot 175, £3,200 to S. J. Phillips.
1742, a single example, Anonymous sale; Christie's, New York, 22 April 1993, lot 63.
1745, a pair, matching the present lot: Mrs M. A. S. Veysey, Sotheby’s, London, 17 June 1971, lot 176, £2,100, now in The Thyssen Collection.
1747, a single example, Offered Christie's, New York, 17 October 1996, lot 373.
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., as quoted in M. Clayton, The Collector's Dictionary of the Silver & Gold of Great Britain & North America, London, 1971, p. 122.

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', as quoted in P. Glanville, Silver, History and Design, London, 1997, p. 43.

In 1944 Commander G. E. P. How 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 popular condiment to serve with roast beef, see P. Glanville, Silver in England, London, 1987, p. 98. 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.

RENOWNED PAUL DE LAMERIE COLLECTORS
A ‘superb and very elegant’ tea urn by de Lamerie, 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 this maker.