Basin
Part of a large service for three dozen guests, this silver gilt ewer and basin were made for Sir Charles Hanbury Williams’ embassy to Russia in 1755. While ambassador to Russia, Williams befriended the Grand Duchess Catherine, who would become Catherine the Great after seizing the throne in 1762. Though these ornate examples may have been purely decorative, an ewer and basin were typically used for handwashing with warm, scented water before a meal.
Both ewer and basin bear the maker’s mark of Abraham Portal, whose family was among the Huguenots who fled France for England after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685. Portal was apprenticed to Paul de Lamerie, one of the most renowned silversmiths in eighteenth-century London; the elegant Rococo ornament of these pieces betray de Lamerie’s influence. After Portal’s brief career as a silversmith, he became a relatively successful playwright.
Both ewer and basin bear the maker’s mark of Abraham Portal, whose family was among the Huguenots who fled France for England after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685. Portal was apprenticed to Paul de Lamerie, one of the most renowned silversmiths in eighteenth-century London; the elegant Rococo ornament of these pieces betray de Lamerie’s influence. After Portal’s brief career as a silversmith, he became a relatively successful playwright.
Artwork Details
- Title: Basin
- Maker: Abraham Portal (British, active ca. 1747–died 1809)
- Date: 1755/56
- Culture: British, London
- Medium: Silver gilt
- Dimensions: Overall (confirmed): 16 1/8 × 11 3/8 × 6 in., 93 oz. 14 dwt. (41 × 28.9 × 15.2 cm, 2914.488g)
- Classification: Metalwork-Silver
- Credit Line: Gift of Irwin Untermyer, 1968
- Object Number: 68.141.317
- Curatorial Department: European Sculpture and Decorative Arts
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Abraham Portal
1755/56
I H
1675–76
Samuel Margas Jr.
ca. 1721
William Lukin I
1716/17
Lewis Mettayer
1709–10
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