{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O156436"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O156436/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2009CC8138/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2009CC8138/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2009CC8138","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London/ © the Rosalinde & Arthur Gilbert Collection, on loan to the Victoria and Albert Museum, London ","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2009CR4156","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London/ © the Rosalinde & Arthur Gilbert Collection, on loan to the Victoria and Albert Museum, London ","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2009CC8134","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London/ © the Rosalinde & Arthur Gilbert Collection, on loan to the Victoria and Albert Museum, London ","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2009CC8133","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London/ © the Rosalinde & Arthur Gilbert Collection, on loan to the Victoria and Albert Museum, London ","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2009CC8130","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London/ © the Rosalinde & Arthur Gilbert Collection, on loan to the Victoria and Albert Museum, London ","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2024NW8705","copyright":"© Victoria & Albert Museum","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2024NW8706","copyright":"© Victoria & Albert Museum","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O156436/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O156436","accessionNumber":"LOAN:GILBERT.712-2008","objectType":"Basket","titles":[],"summaryDescription":"Sir Robert Walpole, first prime minister of Great Britain, was an important early patron of the Huguenot goldsmith Paul de Lamerie (1688-1751). This basket was inherited by Walpole's great-grandson, the collector Horace Walpole of Strawberry Hill.\r\n\r\nWhen the Catholic King Louis XIV revoked the Edict of Nantes in 1685, Huguenots (French Protestants) were forced to leave the country. Many were craftsmen who settled in London. Their technical skills and fashionable French style ensured that the luxury silver, furniture, watches and jewellery they made were highly sought after.  Huguenot specialists transformed English silver by introducing higher standards of craftsmanship. They promoted new forms, such as the soup tureen and sauceboat, and introduced a new repertoire of ornament, with cast sculptural details and exquisite engraving.\r\n\r\nSir Arthur Gilbert and his wife Rosalinde formed one of the world's great decorative art collections, including silver, mosaics, enamelled portrait miniatures and gold boxes.  Arthur Gilbert donated his extraordinary collection to Britain in 1996.","physicalDescription":"A silver, two-handled oval basket on a rim foot pierced with ovolo ornament and with bands of reed and tie above and below. The slightly spreading sides are pierced and chased with simulated basketwork. An additional band of reed and tie is applied beneath the plaited basketwork rim, and a band of cabled cording is applied to the border. The handles are formed as twined ropework and cording. Engraved on the flat base is a coat of arms on hatched ground within a cartouche of rococo scrolls and trelliswork.","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Lamerie, Paul de","id":"A8591"},"association":{"text":"maker","id":"AAT251917"},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"silver","id":"AAT11029"}],"techniques":[{"text":"raising","id":"AAT237068"},{"text":"flat chasing","id":"AAT233402"},{"text":"piercing","id":"AAT231153"},{"text":"casting","id":"AAT53104"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Raised, flat-chased, pierced and cast silver","categories":[{"text":"Metalwork","id":"THES48920"},{"text":"Containers","id":"THES48972"},{"text":"Eating","id":"THES48963"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"MET","id":"THES48599"},"images":["2009CC8138","2009CR4156","2009CC8134","2009CC8133","2009CC8130","2024NW8705","2024NW8706"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"72A","id":"THES413998"},"free":"","case":"CA002","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"basket","id":""}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"London","id":"x28980"},"association":{"text":"assayed","id":"x42656"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"1731-32","earliest":"1731-01-01","latest":"1732-12-31"},"association":{"text":"hallmarked","id":"x32454"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"The Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Collection on loan to the Victoria and Albert Museum, London","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"10","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"37.5","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Depth","value":"28","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Weight","value":"1780","unit":"g","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"Scratch weight: 58-9\r\nMeasured 30/04/24 IW ","marksAndInscriptions":[{"content":"London hallmarks for 1731-32;the engraved coat of arms is encircled by the garter ribband with the motto 'HONI SOIT QUI MAL Y PENSE' and below with the motto of the Walpole family 'FARI QUAE SENTIAT'.","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"","medium":"","method":"","position":"","script":"","translation":"","transliteration":"","type":"","note":""},{"content":"Mark of Paul de Lamerie","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"","medium":"","method":"","position":"","script":"","translation":"","transliteration":"","type":"","note":""}],"objectHistory":"Sir Robert Walpole was one of Paul de Lamerie's most important patrons during the late 1720s and early 1730s: in addition to the two pieces in the Gilbert Collection that are engraved with his arms, he also commissioned the so-called Walpole Salver of 1728 in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. and an inkstand of 1733 in the Bank of England. The basket was inherited by Walpole's great-grandson, the connoisseur Horace Walpole of Strawberry Hill, and is almost certainly the one described in the Strawberry Hill sale catalogue (April 25, 1842, lot 130) as \"a handsome 13-inch oblong bread-basket, open basket pattern border and twisted handles\"; it realised £22 14s 4d. Unlike the salver mentioned above, this basket is not likely to have been specially commissioned by Walpole, and was probably supplied to him from the goldsmith's stock (Schroder, 1988, pp.202-203).  The arms are those of Walpole impaling Shorter, for Sir Robert Walpole (1676-1745) Knight of the Garter, first earl of Orford, and prime minister of England. In 1700, he married Catherine Shorter (d.1737), granddaughter of Sir John Shorter, Lord Mayor of London, and in 1738 Maria Skerrett.  Walpole was the third son of Robert Walpole of Houghton in Norfolk. He was intended for a career in the church but left King's College, Cambridge in 1698, when the death of his elder brother unexpectedly made him heir to the Houghton estates. In 1700 he succeeded his father, coming into an annual income of some two thousand pounds. Two years later he entered Parliament, having been elected to the seat of King's Lynn formerly held by his father; he continued to represent the same constituency until his retirement from politics.\r\r\nProvenance: Sir Robert Walpole, 1st Earl of Orford.  By descent to Horace Walpole of Strawberry Hill, sale, lot 130 (eleventh day's sale), April 25, 1842.  J.  C.  Dent, Sudeley Castle.  Purchased from Partridge (Fine Arts) Ltd., London, 1975.\n\nHistorical significance: The engraving is of particular interest because it bears a striking resemblance to that on the Walpole Salver, which is made from the matrices of the Exchequer Seal and engraved with a design incorporating a depiction of the seal's obverse and reverse. The engraving on the salver has traditionally, though not undisputedly, been attributed to the painter William Hogarth, who was originally trained as an engraver of plate. Oman (1978, pp. 94-97) dismisses the objection that the salver is not in Hogarth's style on the grounds that \"the nature of the order demanded a formal style\" and that, although Hogarth decided to pursue other art forms after completing his apprenticeship, \" it is unlikely that he would have refused important commissions from the leading goldsmith in London.\" However, Hogarth would presumably not have viewed the task of engraving this basket in the same challenging light; thus the stylistic similarity of the two engravings would seem prima facie to be against Hogarth's authorship of either. A more likely attribution for the engraving of both the salver and the basket may be to Hogarth's master, Ellis Gamble, who was active from about 1710 to 1737, when he is last known to have taken an apprentice. According to Oman (1978, p. 91), Gamble was among the engravers that de Lamerie employed. Both basket and salver have definite affinities with other examples that Oman attributes to the engraver, namely, two pulls in the British Museum taken from salvers, and a two-handled cup of 1719 by David Willaume I (Oman, 1978, figs. 105-7) (Schroder, 1988, p.203).\n\nIn 'British and Continental Gold and Silver in the Ashmolean Museum', 2009, Vol.II, no. 246,pp.666-668 and the entry for a similar silver basket supplied for Nassau Paulet, son of Charles, 2nd Duke of Bolton, Timothy Schroder attributes the similarly styled engraving to the 'Hasell' master. This engraver apparently worked solely for Paul de Lamerie from 1731 and his work is consistently found on silver supplied by de Lamerie for the Hasell family. The Walpole basket is illustrated as figure 97.\n","historicalContext":"Silver baskets imitating basketware were made in London by native goldsmith John Eckford in 1703. Traditionally associated with the layette and offered as a gift on the birth of a child, the form was developed for table use to contain bread or fruit as shown in William Hogarth's 1742 group portrait of The Graham Children (National Gallery, London). By 1730 the handle may be fixed and centrally placed, so the D-loop handle on either side of the Walpole breadbasket is traditional in form. Later a swing handle is introduced as in the 1741/2 example in the Gilbert Collection, or as in the Paul De Lamerie basket of 1742-3 (M.6-2001).","briefDescription":"Silver, two-handled oval basket; Paul de Lamerie, London, 1731-32","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Cripps, Wilfred, Joseph. <u>Old English Plate. Ecclesiastical, Decorative, and Domestic: Its Makers and Marks</u>. 10th ed. London: John Murray, 1914, p. 400. Timothy Schroder,<u>The Gilbert Collection of Gold and Silver</u>, Los Angeles, 1988, no. 49, pp. 200-203; Timothy Schroder, <u>British and Continental Gold and Silver in the Ashmolean Museum</u>, Oxford, 2009, vol.II, pp.666-668, fig.97; Tessa Murdoch, 'Power and Plate: Sir Robert Walpole's Silver', <u>The Burlington Magazine</u>, CLVII, no.1436, May 2015, pp. 318-324, fig.21."},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Hayward, J.F.  <u>Virtuoso goldsmiths and the triumph of Mannerism, 1540-1620</u>.  London: Sotheby Parke Bernet Publications; New York: Rizzoli International Publications, 1976, p. 116, no. 7 and p. 118."},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Schroder, Timothy. <u>The Gilbert collection of gold and silver</u>. Los Angeles (Los Angeles County Museum of Art) 1988, cat. no. 49, pp. 200-203.  ISBN.0875871445."},{"reference":{"text":"Jones, William Ezelle, <i>Monumental Silver: Selections from the Gilbert Collection</i>. Los Angeles : Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1977","id":"AUTH354722"},"details":"no.5","free":""}],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[{"text":"12. Basket\r\n1731–32\r\n\r\nSir Robert Walpole, the first Prime Minister of Great Britain, commissioned the nearby candelabra (6, 10). This basket was inherited by Walpole’s youngest son, the great collector Horace Walpole (1717–97).\r\n\r\nLondon, England; Paul de Lamerie (1688–1751)\r\nSilver\r\nEngraved with arms of Sir Robert Walpole, 1st Earl of Orford (1676–1745)\r\nMuseum no. Loan:Gilbert.712-2008","date":{"text":"16/11/2016 - 2024","earliest":"2016-11-16","latest":"2024-12-31"}},{"text":"Basket\r\n1731–2\r\nSir Robert Walpole, first prime minister of Great Britain, was an important early patron of the silversmith Paul de Lamerie. Like the Walpole salver on display in the V&A British Galleries, this basket was inherited by Walpole’s  youngest son, the collector Horace Walpole.\r\nLondon, England; Paul de Lamerie (1688–1751)\r\nSilver\r\nEngraved with arms of Sir Robert Walpole, 1st Earl of Orford (1676–1745)\r\nMuseum no. Loan:Gilbert.712-2008","date":{"text":"2009","earliest":"2009-01-01","latest":"2009-12-31"}}],"partNumbers":["LOAN:GILBERT.712-2008"],"accessionNumberNum":"712","accessionNumberPrefix":"LOAN:GILBERT","accessionYear":2008,"otherNumbers":[{"type":{"text":"Arthur Gilbert Number","id":"THES50383"},"number":"SG 65"},{"type":{"text":"LACMA","id":"THES57415"},"number":"M.75.135.49"},{"type":{"text":"The Gilbert Collection, Somerset House","id":"THES50384"},"number":"1996.37"},{"type":{"text":"Arthur Gilbert Number","id":"THES50383"},"number":"SG 362 i"},{"type":{"text":"The Gilbert Collection, Somerset House","id":"THES50384"},"number":"2001.10"}],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":["2018LC2414","2018LC3692","2019LR1099","2019LV3092","2019LV2588","2019LW8955","2019LW4361"],"recordModificationDate":"2026-05-12","recordCreationDate":"2008-06-18","availableToBook":false}}