Tea canister for black tea, silver gilt. Designed by Paul de Lamerie and engraved by William Hogarth. England, London about 1730.

One of a pair

Bequeathed by Claude D. Rotch

Attributed to Paul de Lamerie (born in Bois-le-Duc, The Netherlands, about 1688, died in London, 1751) and William Hogarth (born in London, 1697, died in London, 1764) engraved with the coat of arms for Antonio Lopez Suasso (alias Isaac) (1723-1776) impaling Da Costa, his mother's family.

The family history begins with Dr. Pedro Lopes Fránces who moved to Libourne as a medical doctor. His grandson Antonio (1614-1685) was granted title of Baron of Avernas le Gras (Brabant) by Charles II of Spain. He moved to the Netherlands and was part of the Portuguese-Jewish community in The Hague. His descendants held important leading functions within the Portuguese-Jewish communities in the Netherlands. Through its banking activities, the family became one of the wealthiest families in the Netherlands. They are well known for having financed the Glorious Revolution.


After being expelled from the Iberian Peninsula, most of the Sephardic Jews settled in trading cities such as London and Antwerp. By the late sixteenth century they were arriving in Amsterdam and The Hague. The Lopes Suassos were a rich old Sephardic family of Marranos, or Jews who had been forced to convert to Christianity under pressure from the Portuguese Inquisition, but once in Amsterdam they openly returned to their true religion, Judaism.

Antonio Lopes Suasso (1614–1685), was also known as Isaac Israel Suasso, by his marriage to Violenta de Pinto, a member of another rich old Sephardic family. His father, who had himself been born in Bordeaux, was one of the richest and most famous Portuguese-Jewish merchants in the Amsterdam of his day. The date of Francisco's birth, probably between 1657 and 1660, is uncertain. He had four sisters, Ribca (1655–1695), Rachel (1659–1685), Elisheba (1663–1746) and Esther (1669–1679), as well as a younger brother, Jacob, who died young.

The family retained a sense of belonging to Spain, and on 3 January 1676 Suasso's father received from Charles II of Spain the title of Baron d'Avernas le Gras in recognition of his diplomatic services. The title was drawn from a seigneurie owned by Suasso in the Duchy of Brabant named Avernas le Gras. He also had a good relationship with the Stadtholders, and the banking house of Suasso often supported them financially.

Suasso joined his father's banking business. He continued a successful banking career after the death of his father in 1685, when he inherited half of his father's considerable fortune, much of which was in the form of shares in the Dutch East India Company.

In 1682 Suasso married firstly Judith Francisco Teixeira, at Hamburg. She was the daughter of the banker Manuel (otherwise Isaac) Teixeira, who after Suasso's father and De Pinto was the third most important Portuguese-Jewish merchant-banker in Northern Europe, by his marriage to Beatrix Nunes Henriques. In an age of strategic marriages, the union can be seen as intended to raise capital within a narrow circle, but this design was thwarted when Judith died childless in 1689.

A notable instance of the support of the house of Suasso to the Dutch stadtholders is the loan of two million guilders which Suasso made to William of Orange in 1688 in support of his invasion of England to claim the throne of King James II. Through his father-in-law in Hamburg he was able to make speedy arrangements for the transport of Swedish and Pomeranian troops provided in November 1688 by Charles XI of Sweden to assist William. The coffer in which William repaid the loan to Suasso is today on display in the Willet-Holthuisen Museum in Amsterdam.

Following the death of his first wife in 1689, on 23 February 1694 Suasso married secondly, at the Hague, Leonora (otherwise Rachel) da Costa (1669–1749), and with her had ten children, who became part of a large family network.[1] Their seven sons were Antonio (1695–1775), Alvaro (1696–1751), Manuel (1698–1773), Pedro (1700–1742), Jeronimo (1702–1740), David (1703–1705), and Francisco (1710–1770), while their three daughters were Leonora (1701–1754), Sara (1706–1767) and Hanna (1708–1721).[3]

Suasso died at The Hague on 22 April 1710, in his early fifties. He was buried in the Portuguese-Jewish cemetery called Ets Haim at Ouderkerk aan de Amstel. He was succeeded in his business and as Baron d'Avernas le Gras by his eldest son, Antonio Lopes Suasso the Younger, alias Isaac Lopes Suasso (1695–1775).[

In 1818, 1821 and 1831 three members of the Lopes Suasso family were accepted into the Dutch nobility. They received the noble predict jonkheer. The last family member died in 1970.

The Lopes Suasso art collection became the foundation for the Stedelijk Museum of which Jan Eduard van Someren Brand (1856-1904) was the first curator.

The relation between the Jews of the Republic and the House of Orange goes back to the seventeenth century. The Portuguese-Jewish elite were related to the Stadtholders as bankers, food suppliers, and in diplomatic service. They were part of the court circles and imitated court life and culture. In the eighteenth century, an increasing number of Jews showed their love for and loyalty to the House of Orange, especially when political tension between the House of Orange and the Patriots intensified.

Object Type
One of a pair of canisters, made to hold tea leaves.

Use
This canister is engraved with the initial 'B', indicating that it held the black fermented leaves known as Bohea, a black tea. Its pair bears the initial 'G', indicating that it held the green, unfermented tea leaves, commonly called 'Green' tea. As tea was both expensive and extremely popular at this date, the hinged lid could be locked to prevent theft. Black tea was more popular than green tea by the mid-18th century, and was drunk with milk or cream and often sweetened with sugar.

Maker & Engraver
The coat of arms is that of Antonio Lopez Suasso impaling Da Costa, which also appears on a silver-gilt spoon tray by the renowned goldsmith Paul de Lamerie (1688?-1751), suggesting that the two canisters formed part of a much larger tea service. The engraving is of the highest quality, and is attributed to the celebrated painter and engraver William Hogarth (1697-1764), based on a design by his master, Ellis Gamble. There are documented links between Gamble and de Lamerie, and although this canister is unmarked, it was probably made by de Lamerie.

M.314-1962