Huguenot Upholsterers and Cabinet-makers in the Circle of Daniel Marot

Abstract

The importance of the Huguenots in shaping the whole development of the decorative arts in England between 1695 and 1714 — from the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes to the Hanovarian Succession — is indisputable. On the one hand we have the long lists of carvers, joiners, cabinet-makers, upholsterers, weavers and mercers recorded as immigrants, and attending the French churches in London — lists compiled from the papers so painstakingly published by the Huguenot Society over many years. On the other we have the wonderfully ornate state beds and couches, looking-glasses, tables and stands, picture-frames, fire-screens and chandeliers of the period — all in the French taste, and all finding close parallels in the engravings of Daniel Marot, William Ill’s Huguenot architect and dessinateur. But while Marot is obviously at the centre of a whole web of Huguenot craftsmen — more than anyone responsible for introducing the full-blown Louis Quatorze style to England and Holland — it is all too rare to be able to put the names of such craftsmen to specific items. Either there are tantalising bills, or there are maddeningly anonymous objects.