Fruit Basket (1729): Art, History and Details

Fruit Basket (1729) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Paul Jacques de Lamerie (British, 1688–1751).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Silver fulfilled a prominent role in projecting wealth, status, and power in British life during the 1600s and 1700s. During this time, the arrival of silversmiths from continental Europe infused Dutch, French, and German influences within established English taste. For example, this basket was produced by Paul Jacques de Lamerie, who, despite being the preeminent silversmith in Britain during the early 1700s, was born in the Netherlands to minor French nobility. Unlike later designs, this work, with its rope-twisted handles, scalloped edges, and interweaving pattern, still closely resembles the straw baskets that inspired its shape and decoration.

Object facts

• Title: Fruit Basket
• Date: 1729
• Creator attribution: Paul Jacques de Lamerie (British, 1688–1751)
• Culture: England, London
• Type: Silver
• Technique: silver
• Dimensions: Overall: 9.1 cm (3 9/16 in.); Center: 33 x 29 cm (13 x 11 7/16 in.)
• Collection: Decorative Arts
• Department: Decorative Art and Design
• Accession number: 1936.353

A detail from the museum

The presence of handles suggests that this fruit basket was designed to be passed among guests after dinner.

Collection credit

Gift of Grace Studebaker Fish in memory of her father, John Mohler Studebaker

Further reading listed by the museum

• Foote, Helen. "A Silver Bread Basket by Paul de Lamerie." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 24, no. 1 (January 1937): 8-10

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.