Price On Request A George II Sweet Meat DishSilver London, 1730 Maker's mark of Paul De Lamerie Diameter: 17.5cm, 6.8in Weight: 317g, 10ozProvenance: A.B Ashby Sotheby's London 17th May 1973, lot 186 Literature: Vanessa Bretts Directory of Silver 1600-1940, London, 1986, no 702, illustrated Shaped circular on three scroll feet, the moulded border with shells, foliate scrolls and diaperwork, the fluted sides chased alternatively with oblong motifs with diaperwork or foliage, the field with diaperwork and floral band. Marked on the reverse. Artist Biography:Paul de Lamerie arrived in England with his Huguenot parents in or before 1689, having been baptized 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 second warden; that he never became prime warden probably due to ill health. From the outset he had wealthy clients such as the Honourable George Treby and the Duke of Sutherland. Among...