A basket with a handle made of delicate floral designs.
Photo © President and Fellows of Harvard College
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Photo © President and Fellows of Harvard College

A highly polished oval-shaped silver basket made entirely of looping highly details delicate acanthus leaves. The basket is wide with slightly pointed ends. It stands on a base which is a loop of acanthus leaves with feet which seem to be shaped like the heads of furry dogs. Between two of the feet on the long end there is a small persons face set into the acanthus leaves. There is a handle looping across the narrow length of the basket which is made of a sturdier strip of leaves, faces, and geometric decorative elements.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
1949.114.103
People
Paul De Lamerie, British (Bois-le-Duc 1688 - 1751 London)
Title
Basket
Other Titles
Former Title: Cake Basket
Classification
Vessels
Work Type
vessel
Date
1738-1739
Places
Creation Place: Europe, United Kingdom, England, London
Period
George II (1727-1760)
Culture
British
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/299828

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
25.4 x 35.6 x 33 cm (10 x 14 x 13 in.)
1671 g
Inscriptions and Marks
  • hallmark: on base, struck: lion passant, leopard's head, date letter
  • maker's mark: on base, struck: [crown] / [star] / P [pellet] L / [fleur-de-lys] [Paul de Lamerie, Hare, no. 4]

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Private Collector, London, sold [through Christie's, London, November 6, 1903, lot 91]. Archibald Alexander Hutchinson, New York, bequest; to 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
1949.114.103
Division
European and American Art
Contact
am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu
Permissions

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Descriptions

Description
Of oval form, the foot elaborately cast and chased with foliage, rocaille, and masks of Ceres and lions, the raised everted sides pierced and engraved inside and outside with continuous foliate scrolls, the rim applied with cast border of scrolls, rocaille and cherub heads; the overhead swing handle cast with acanthus-clad scrolls and female heads and applied with similar decoration.

Publication History

  • Wilfred Joseph Cripps, Old English Plate, Ecclesiastical, Decorative and Domestic: its makers and marks, J. Murray (London, 1901), no. 55
  • James Cuno, Alvin L. Clark, Jr., Ivan Gaskell, and William W. Robinson, Harvard's Art Museums: 100 Years of Collecting, ed. James Cuno, Harvard University Art Museums and Harry N. Abrams, Inc. (Cambridge, MA, 1996), pp. 190-1
  • 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. 143-145, cat. no. 123, repr. p. 144, details repr. pp.143-145.

Exhibition History

  • 32Q: 2340 Cabinet Gallery, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 11/16/2014 - 09/24/2019; Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 11/25/2019 - 06/02/2025

Subjects and Contexts

  • Google Art Project

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