MARK OF PAUL CRESPIN, LONDON, 1740

PAUL CRESPIN (1694-1759)
One of the foremost Huguenot goldsmiths of the first half of the 18th century, he was born in London in 1694. He was not as prolific as some of his contemporaries, such as Paul de Lamerie, however his work was of a very high standard and in a number of instances of inspired quality. A. G. Grimwade in London Goldsmiths 1697-1837, Their Marks and Lives, London, 1982, p. 479, describes his work as 'of a consistently high standard, worthily rivalling Lamerie', with whom he is known to have had a strong working relationship, though no formal partnership. This is illustrated by a magnificent pair of wine coolers issued by the Jewel House to Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield (1694-1773), now in the collections of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, and the National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh. Each have the mark of Paul Crespin overstriking that of de Lamerie.

Crespin was the son of Daniel Crespin of St. Giles in the Fields and apprenticed to fellow Huguenot Jean Pons in 1713. He registered his first mark by December 1721, as freeman of the Longbowstring Makers' Company. Crespin worked for the Dukes of Portland, Somerset and Devonshire, and the Earls of Rockingham, Albemarle and Dysart (see below). He also supplied plate to foreign rulers, such as a vast vessel for bathing which weighed 6,030 oz for the King of Portugal and various works for Catherine the Great of Russia. He also executed a magnificent silver-gilt centrepiece for Frederick, Prince of Wales in 1741, which remains in the Royal Collection and is illustrated in A. G. Grimwade, Rococo Silver 1727-1765, London, 1974, no. 48. A portrait of Paul Crespin by Pierre Subleyras, circa 1726, is in the Victoria and Albert Museum. He is shown in shirt sleeves holding a baroque vase after the designs of Italian Enea Vico.

EPERGNES
The surtout-de-table or epergne was the centrepiece of an elaborately laid dining table and as such was as important as the wine coolers in the finest services of plate, such as the Ambassadorial commissions issued by the King’s Jewel House to his representatives at foreign courts. When Lord Chesterfield was made Ambassador to the Hague his service of plate included an 'Aparn with all its appertinencys' which weighed 820 ounces. The wine coolers weighed 388 ounces. The Earl’s chef, Vincent La Chapelle, published table plans including an epergne in The Modern Cook, published in 1736. He wrote that the 'surtout to be left upon the Table till the Dessert is ser'd". At a dinner for the Duke of Chandos at Cannons in 1725, Lady Grisell Baille described how epergnes were employed during the meal. She wrote that the three epergnes had 'five plates, 4 low and one higher in the middle in each, 1^st ring a green goose, a chicken a Rabet. The midle ring blang Mangie, broun Mangie, brunt cream, custart white and custart green or Tanzie. 3^rd ring a dukline, turkie port, 2 pigions broiled chicken, rabet'. The outer epergnes with savoury dishes were for the second course, to be removed from the table after that course, whilst the central epergne with sweet dishes was for the dessert course at the end of the repast.

The present epergne is somewhat transitional in design. Early examples such as the Kirkleatham epergne at Temple Newsam, Leeds, by David Willaume and Anne Tanqueary, 1731, and the Williams surtout, by Edward Feline, 1730, now in the National Museum of Wales, Cardiff, have a central soup tureen with cruets and casters as an integral part of their design. This form evolved into the present type with a central dish or basket and four dishes on branches, sometimes accompanied by additional candle branches. One such centrepiece is the Dysart Epergne, made for Sir Lionel Tollemache, 4th Earl of Dysart (1708-1770), of Ham House, Richmond. Also by Crespin, made in 1748-9, it was sold Sotheby's New York, 27 May 2004, lot 109. The epergnes of later 18th century display additional layers of branches and baskets and, in the grandest examples, elaborate canopies.

Paul Crespin (1694-1770). c. 1720. © Victoria and Albert Museum, London.