Price On Request A Spectacular Silver Brazier by Paul de Lamerie, London 1745Silver, London, 1745 Maker's mark of Paul de Lamerie Diameter: 20cm Weight: 860 grams (27.6 oz.) This is a rare and striking example of a piece made by the master silversmith, Paul De Lamerie. The four lions faces that appear on the side of the brazier are of the most exceptional and striking quality. Unlike the conventional lions heads which are seen on other silver pieces of the period these are completely out of the ordinary in terms of their realism and expression. This is a phenomenal piece of table ware that deserves to be seen as much more than simply a brazier.Artist Biography:Paul de Lamerie arrived in England with his Huguenot parents in or before 1689, having been baptiszed at 's Hertogenbosch in the Netherlands in 1688. In 1703 he was apprenticed to the Huguenot goldsmith Pierre Platel, and after being admitted to the freedom of the Goldsmiths' Company, he registered his first mark and set up a workshop in Windmill Street, Soho, in 1712. He took thirteen apprentices between 1715 and 1749 who paid premiums varying between £10 and £45m In 1716 he married Louisa Juliott, also a Huguenot, and by her had six children, three of whom died in childhood. Little more of his personal history is known, although his career in the Goldsmiths' Company is comparatively well documented. By 1717, he was already referred to as 'the King's Silversmith' but again in a complaint 'for making and selling Great quantities of Large Plate which he doth not bring to Goldsmith's Hall to be mark't according to Law.' He joined the livery in 1717; fourteen years later he was elected to the court of assistants. In 1743 he was appointed fourth warden and in 1747...