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Not currently on display at the V&A

Waiter

1736-1737 (hallmarked)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

Servants held a waiter, or small salver, to hand a single glass to a dinner guest. Salvers this size were also used to carry gloves and, later, visiting cards. The maker, Paul de Lamerie, was the son of French Huguenot parents and came to London in the 1690s as a small child, before going on to become the most successful Huguenot smith in the city.

When 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 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.

Sir 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.


Object details

Category
Object type
Materials and techniques
Cast, chased, engraved, punched silver
Brief description
Silver, London hallmarks for 1736-37, mark of Paul de Lamerie
Physical description
This circular waiter is extended with four ears to form a square and is mounted on four feet shaped as bunches of grapes. The elaborate border of chased scrolls, shells and grape laden vines on a punched matted ground has a narrow band of engraved of circles around its inner edge. At the centre of the waiter a rococo cartouche contains an engraved coat of arms, identified as those of Ralph Congreve and his wife.
Dimensions
  • Height: 2.7cm
  • Width: 18.4cm
  • Depth: 15.6cm
  • Weight: 420g
Updated with measurements taken 18/08/08
Style
Marks and inscriptions
  • Engraved with the coat of arms of Ralph Congreve, MP(c.1721-1775) impaling those of his wife Charlotte, daughter and heir of William, third baron Stawell of Somerton Gules, a chevron between three battle axes impaling gules a cross lozengy argent
  • London hallmarks for 1736-37
  • Mark of Paul deLamerie
Gallery label
(Gallery 71, case 2) 10. Waiter 1736–37 Waiters were small salvers used to offer a single glass to a dinner guest. Like the salvers on the shelf above, this waiter is engraved with a coat of arms. As the guest lifted the filled glass, they would reveal the coat of arms on the waiter below, reminding them of their host’s hospitality. London, England; probably Paul de Lamerie (1688–1751) Silver Engraved with arms, probably of Ralph Congreve MP (died 1775) Museum no. Loan:Gilbert.983-2008(16/11/2016)
Credit line
The Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Collection on loan to the Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Object history
The arms are probably intended as those of Congreve with Stawell in pretence and impaling the latter, for Ralph Congreve (d.1775) member of Parliament, who married Charlotte, daughter and heir of William, third baron Stawell of Somerton. Congreve inherited the estate of Aldermaston from his wife in 1762. The arms on the dexter side - 'Gules, a chevron between three battle axes' - have presumably been engraved in error for 'sable'. A similarly engraved salver of 1744 by the same maker is illustrated by Phillips (1935, pl. CXLIV) Another pair of waiters with the identical border, hallmarked for 1747, was in the Anson collection (see cat. no. 71, p. 276) and was sold at Christie's in 1965 (June 16, lot 30). The pair differed from this waiter only in having a flat-chased band of scrolls and leaves within the border. Another pair of 1745 is in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, and an enlarged version of the same design was used for a pair of salvers of the same year from the Mountrath collection (sold Sotheby's, New York, June 6, 1980, lot 27) (Schroder, 1988, p. 222).

Provenance: Ralph Congreve. Purchased from David Orgell Inc., Beverley Hills, 1981.
Historical context
A waiter is a flat dish used to carry drinks or food. By modern convention, the term 'waiter' is generally applied to salvers less than eight inches in diameter. In the eighteenth century this was not the case, and even the largest examples were frequently referred to as waiters.
Subjects depicted
Summary
Servants held a waiter, or small salver, to hand a single glass to a dinner guest. Salvers this size were also used to carry gloves and, later, visiting cards. The maker, Paul de Lamerie, was the son of French Huguenot parents and came to London in the 1690s as a small child, before going on to become the most successful Huguenot smith in the city.

When 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 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.

Sir 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.
Bibliographic reference
Schroder, Timothy. The Gilbert collection of gold and silver. Los Angeles (Los Angeles County Museum of Art) 1988, cat. no. 55, pp. 222-23. ISBN.0875871445.
Other numbers
  • SG 116 - Arthur Gilbert Number
  • 1996.59 - The Gilbert Collection, Somerset House
  • MM 19 - Arthur Gilbert Number
Collection
Accession number
LOAN:GILBERT.983-2008

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Record createdJune 19, 2008
Record URL
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