Jean, René and Thomas Pelletier, a Huguenot Family of Carvers and Gilders in England 1682-1726. Part II

• Autores: Tessa Murdoch
• Localización: Burlington magazine, ISSN 0007-6287, Vol. 140, Nº 1143, 1998, págs. 363-374
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • As we saw in Part I of this article, Jean Pelletier's younger son Thomas took over the management of the family business in 1702. In November 1704, a month before his father's death, Thomas was appointed Cabinetmaker in Ordinary to Queen Anne (see the Appendix below, Document III).1 Curiously, however, there are no direct payments to him in the Lord Chamberlain's accounts and, as a result, his work for the queen has not hitherto been recognised. A careful reading of the Lord Chamberlain's accounts for that reign shows that in 1703 the cabinetmaker Gerrit Jensen, who had formerly specialised in veneered furniture, was suddenly supplying giltwood items. It seems probable that Jensen subcontracted this giltwood furniture to carvers and gilders outside his own workshop and, as the dates of the bills for giltwood from Jensen are earlier than Thomas Pelletier's royal appointment, it is plausible that Jensen may have given the work to Thomas and Rene Pelletier and others, probably including Robert Derignee. Indeed Jensen's 'Boulle' mirrors at Boughton (Fig. 1) have giltwood crestings and inner fillets which may also have been supplied by an outworker.2 At Windsor Castle, Buckingham Palace and Warwick Castle there are several pieces of giltwood furniture originally made for Queen Anne which can plausibly be attributed to the Pelletier brothers on the strength of their similarity to earlier pieces ascribed to the family in Part I.