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Beyond the Border
Huguenot Goldsmiths in Northern Europe and North America

Edited by Tessa Murdoch
Tessa Murdoch is Deputy Keeper in the Department of Sculpture, Metalwork, Ceramics and Glass, Victoria and Albert Museum. She has curated important and well received exhibitions, and contributed to their catalogues, including The Quiet Conquest: The Huguenots, 1685–1985 (Museum of London). She is interested in patronage of and international influences on the decorative arts and has drawn heavily on archival sources for her published work.

“The welcome and acceptance that Huguenot craftsmen enjoyed beyond the French borders, where they enjoyed freedom of worship and diverse patronage, provides a common ground against which to access the exchanges between the different centres.” Mark Jones, Director, Victoria & Albert Museum

“These essays examine silver objects as components of a trans-Atlantic material world, reflecting the attitudes and values of both the craftspeople of French Protestant heritage who made them, and the diverse users who acquired them.” Deborah Dependahl Waters, President, New York Silver Society, Inc.

“Britain, the Netherlands, Germany and North America were undoubtedly the beneficiaries of the wave of Huguenot emigration from France. These stimulating papers successfully measure and assess the impact of the Huguenot style in those countries which accepted them.” David Beasley, The Goldsmiths' Company

Beyond the Border sets the lives and work of Huguenot goldsmiths in the context of the different societies in which they lived and worked. Distinguished international scholars explore the contributions of individual goldsmiths drawing on new research. Michèle Bimbenet Privat examines the lives and work of Huguenot goldsmiths in France during times of tolerance of the Protestant religion in the 16th and 17th centuries. She explains how protestant craftsmen dominated regional centres but found establishing a presence in the metropolis more challenging. The influence of the Louis XIV style was greater on the leading Dutch goldsmiths in the late 17th and 18th centuries. In contrast to London, first generation Huguenot goldsmiths played only a minor role in their adopted cities of The Hague and Amsterdam. Those who settled in Berlin and Kassel, often from Metz in Northern France, made a greater impact through the purity of style in which they continued to work in the 18th century.

Those who settled in the English-speaking world benefited from ambitious patronage from noble and professional clients. Goldsmiths who settled in the American colonies had more in common stylistically with those who worked in Dublin and Cork. First generation Huguenot goldsmiths in London set the pace for the next generation which produced in Paul de Lamerie one of the most successful craft businesses of his generation. Beyond the Border explores the transatlantic links between the Huguenot goldsmiths who settled in Europe and America.

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