| The
maker
Pierre Harache was one of the most important goldsmiths working in London
during the last two decades of the seventeenth century. This basket is
one of his most significant surviving works. He was born in France and
came to England in 1681, as a refugee to escape religious persecution.
Pierre Harache was the first Huguenot to be admitted to the Goldsmith’s
Company in 1682. His outstanding talent brought him to the attention of
the Court and by 1689 he was receiving commissions from William III. His
technical accomplishment was matched by his design innovation and he brought
the most up-to-date French style and ornament to English silver.
The
patron
This basket was made for Sir Henry Capel. The Capel family were ardent
royalists and Henry’s father was executed by Oliver Cromwell in
1649. Henry had a highly successfully political career, being at various
times, First Lord of the Admiralty, one of the Lords of the Treasury and
Lord Deputy of Ireland.
Samuel Pepys
invited him to a dinner party in 1669 and in his diary records particular
pleasure in Capel’s conversation. John Evelyn also records, in 1678,
that Capel was a fine gardener and that his fruit plantation at Kew was
the choicest in England.
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