Courtauld

English family of silversmiths, industrialists, collectors and patrons, of French origin. The family originated from the town of St Pierre on the Ile d'Ol?ron off La Rochelle. They arrived in London a few years after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685, and between 1708 and 1780 three generations of Courtauld silversmiths were registered at the Goldsmiths' Company. Augustine Courtauld (c. 1686-c. 1751) was apprenticed to SIMON PANTIN in 1701 and, after becoming a freeman of the Goldsmiths' Company in 1708, he started a business as a plateworker in Church Court, off St Martin's Lane in London. The majority of his work is of high quality, for example a silver tea-table (1742; St Petersburg, Hermitage) and the state salt of the Corporation of the City of London (1730; London, Mansion House). Augustine's brother Pierre Courtauld (1690-1729) registered a mark in 1721, but none of his works has been identified. Samuel Courtauld I (1720-65) was apprenticed to his father, Augustine, in 1734 but did not enter his own mark until 1746. Like his father he produced many pieces in the fashionable Rococo style of the mid-18th century, for example a large two-handled soup tureen and cover (1751; Courtaulds plc, on loan to U. London, Courtauld Inst. Gals) and an oval shaving basin (1757; St Petersburg, Hermitage). In 1749 he married Louisa Perina Ogier (c. 1730-1807), and on Samuel's death she continued the business. In 1765 Louisa Courtauld registered her own mark, which appears on a silver table bell of 1766-7 (Oxford, Ashmolean; see BELL, fig. 2). Three years later she took into partnership George Cowles (d 1811), and their joint mark appears on articles in the Neo-classical style made between 1768 and 1777. At the demise of this partnership Louisa entered a joint mark with her son Samuel Courtauld II (1752-1821), but the partnership continued for only a further three years until he emigrated to the USA to pursue a career as a merchant. Louisa's other son, George Courtauld (b 1761), became a silk-weaver, thus initiating the family's connection with the textile industry. The exact relationship of the collector (1) Samuel Courtauld to the earlier generations is unclear.

See the Abbreviations for further details.