A Queen Anne silver tankard, Pierre Harache, London, 1703

Christie's, London, 10 July 2013, lot 289,

with Shrubsole, New York, 2014.

The arms are those of Wynne of Gwydir, Carnarvonshire.

By 1700, Pierre Harache was probably the most eminent Huguenot silversmith in London. Little is known about his life in France before he fled to London and he was always thought to have left directly from Rouen for England. Evidence of a trial held in Paris proves that he was in fact working in the French capital as a journeyman when he was accused of having retained some silver pieces that he was charged to restore. He is then recorded on the Calendar of Treasury Books, 20 October 1681, because he arrived in England with '113 ounces of new white plate and 125 ounces of old plate', without having to pay the import duty tax. This privilege was usually for diplomatic missionaries only and proves that Pierre Harache was expected in England, most likely by patrons whom he had met in France. Barbara Palmer (1640-1709) for instance, 1st Duchess of Cleveland, royal mistress to King Charles II and mistress of the Earl of Chesterfield for a time, spent four years in Paris between 1676 and 1680, where she became the mistress of Ralph Montagu (1638-1709), the Ambassador of England and collector of French silver. This patronage from the highest English aristocracy would explain how Pierre Harache, freshly disembarking from France in June 1682, became the first Huguenot free of the Goldsmiths' Company a month later.

His most sumptuous commissions include a wine fountain and cistern, the latter weighing 2000 ounces, for 1st Duke of Marlborough and his European campaigns during the War of the Spanish Succession (1700-1702).

He died at the age of 73, having trained a new generation of skilled silversmiths, including Simon Pantin.