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A silver tureen covered in carved flowers, shell texture, and snakes.

A silver tureen which sits on a base which resembles the coils of a snake which spill outward. The body of the vessel is covered in arched parallel lines, between which the texture of other arches run perpendicular, creating a scalloped texture. This pattern is obscured by a garland of flowers which comes down from the top edge. The handle starts with a floral shape on the back of the tureen which stretches down into a thin curved piece of silver which can be held.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
1949.114.13
People
Paul De Lamerie, British (Bois-le-Duc 1688 - 1751 London)
Title
Cream or Milk Jug
Classification
Vessels
Work Type
vessel
Date
1742-1743
Places
Creation Place: Europe, United Kingdom, England, London
Period
George II (1727-1760)
Culture
British
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/229287

Location

Location
Level 2, Room 2340, European and American Art, 17th–19th century, The Silver Cabinet: Art and Ritual, 1600–1850
View this object's location on our interactive map

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Silver
Dimensions
8.9 × 12.4 × 6.9 cm (3 1/2 × 4 7/8 × 2 11/16 in.)
213 g
Inscriptions and Marks
  • hallmark: under base, struck: lion passant, leopard's head, date letter
  • maker's mark: under base, struck: [mark of Paul de Lamerie] [Hare, no. 5]

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Lord Swaything, London, sold [through his sale, Christie's, London, May 6, 1924, lot 13]. Archibald Alexander Hutchinson, New York, bequest; to the Fogg Art Museum, 1949.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Bequest of Archibald A. Hutchinson, Esq.
Accession Year
1949
Object Number
1949.114.13
Division
European and American Art
Contact
am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu
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Descriptions

Description
Cast, the shell-shaped body on openwork tri-form foot formed as an entwined snake, the sides resembling the flutes and spiralling of a shell with foliage descending from the rim, the front with a lizard, the openwork handle formed as a trailing leafy tendril hended by a flowerhead set assymetrically to the body.

Publication History

  • Silver by Paul de Lamerie, exh. cat., The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (Houston, 1956), no. 55
  • Susan Hare, ed., Paul de Lamerie, At the Sign of The Golden Ball: The Work of England's Master Silversmith (1688-1751), The Goldsmiths' Company (England, 1990), p. 164
  • Judith A. Neiswander, "Transatlantic Treasures", Country Life, Country Life (London, July 9, 1992), p. 58, fig. 4
  • Beth Carver Wees, English, Irish & Scottish Silver at the Sterling and Francine Clark Institute, exh. cat., Hudson Hills Press (New York, 1997), p. 166
  • Christopher Hartop, British and Irish Silver in the Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University Art Museums/Yale University Press (Cambridge, Mass. and New Haven, 2007), pp. 147-148, cat. no. 125, repr. p. 147, details repr. p. 146-147; repr. in b/w on jacket front flap and p. 264.

Exhibition History

  • Silver by Paul de Lamerie in America, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 11/10/1956 - 12/02/1956
  • 32Q: 2340 Cabinet Gallery, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 11/25/2019 - 03/01/2025

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of European and American Art at am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu