Tea Equipage

The silver-mounted mahogany box contains two tea canisters, a sugar canister, a cream jug, 12 spoons, a pair of sugar nippers, a mote spoon and two knives. It was assembled in 1735 by possibly the greatest silversmith of the age, Paul de Lamerie, for his clients Jean Daniel Boissier and Suzanne Berchere. The couple were married that year so the equipage may very well have been a wedding present.

The various pieces show how style and taste were in a state of transition in the mid 1730s, moving away from the classical baroque style of the early part of the century towards the more flowing rococo style based on naturalism and asymmetry. Both the maker of this piece and his customers were second generation émigré Huguenots or French Protestants who came to England at the end of the 17th century to avoid religious persecution and economic recession.

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