Sugar Caster

Artist Paul de Lamerie (English, 1688 - 1751)

Date1734

MediumSilver

DimensionsOverall: 8 × 4 inches (20.32 × 10.16 cm)

Credit LineGift of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph S. Atha

Object number57-102 A,B

On View

Not on view

Collections

Architecture, Design and Decorative Arts

Terms

DescriptionVase shape encircled by molding with four shell-headed masks in relief, above which four vertical strapwork panels. Base has band of flat-chased diapered panels alternating with shells. Domed cover divided by tapering vertical ribs into eight pierced panels, alternately rosettes and scrolls.Gallery Label

Gallery Label

Casters were used to sprinkle sugar, salt and spices, which were still considered luxury items, onto foods at the table. The largest caster, used for sugar, is encircled by a bold molding and four masks sporting shell headdresses. The silversmith is Paul de Lamerie, whose French Protestant, or Huguenot, parents fled to England to escape religious persecution. Lamerie excelled in the London silversmith trade, creating one of the most prolific and innovative workshops. Lamerie's unparalleled talents are displayed in his superior craftsmanship, as seen in the intricately fashioned lids of the set of three casters. Divided into eight panels, the design is composed with piercings in the shape of a fleur-de-lis, a stylized, three-petaled iris that is the armorial emblem of the kings of France.

Provenance

Mrs. Lyre Stephens, England;

Samuel Montagu, 1st Baron Swaythling (1832–1911), by 1902;

By descent to his son Louis Montagu, 2^nd Baron Swaythling (1869–1927);

By descent to his son Stuart Albert Montagu, 3rd Baron Swaythling (1898–1990);

Purchased from Shrubsole, Inc., New York, by Mr. and Mrs. Joseph S. Atha, Kansas City, MO, 1957;

Their gift to The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1957.

Published References

John Starkie Gardner, F.S.A. Old silver-work, chiefly English, from the XVth to the XVIIIth centuries; a catalogue of the unique loan collection exhibited in 1902 at St. James's Court, London, in aid of the children's hospital, Gt. Ormond street, supplemented by some further fine specimens from the collections of the dukes of Devonshire and Rutland, Earl Cowper, and others. (London: B.T. Batsford, 1903), vi, 87, unpaginated (repro.).

Charles James Jackson. An Illustrated History of English Plate : Ecclesiastical and Secular, in Which the Development of Form and Decoration in the Silver and Gold Work of the British Isles, from the Earliest Known Examples to the Latest of the Georgian Period, Is Delineated and Described, with a Coloured Frontispiece, Seventy-six Photogravure Plates and Fifteen Hundred Other Illustrations / by Charles James Jackson. (London: "Country Life," Limited, 1911), 292 (repro.).

Philip A.S. Philips. Paul de Lamerie: citizen and goldsmith of London: a study of his life and work, A.D. 1688-1751. (London: B.T. Batsford Ltd, 1935), 86, 95, unpaginated (repro.).

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