A Unique Slant of Light: The Bicentennial History of Art in Louisiana - (Page 384)

American practice as early as the 1830s. Louisiana had been a poor colony for both the French and the Spanish, but that changed during the last decade of colonial rule. Two watershed events, Eli Whitney’s invention of the cotton gin in 1793 and Etienne deBoré’s learning from Saint Domingan emigrants in 1795 the economical way to granulate sugar, brought unprecedented prosperity to Louisiana. Add the lucrative brokering of agricultural produce from the upper Midwest to the profits made from the two “white golds” and New Orleans became an attractive place for entrepreneurial businessmen, planters and artists-craftsmen. The most prolific of ethnically French silversmiths in the early nineteenth century was Jean-Noel Delarue. Born in Beccalans, a suburb of Bordeaux, he worked in New Orleans from 1802 until his death in 1842. Several flatware services and a number of individual pieces of flatware survive as well as a few of his footless beakers. Just as is the case with furniture, Louisiana was the beneficiary of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century political PIERRE COUDRAIN (b. 1729 – d. 1779) Soup Spoon, ca. 1768-1769 Coin silver; 7 x 1 x 1 in. LSU Museum of Art Gift of Ms. R. Elizabeth Williams, Mrs. Bert S. Turner, Mrs. Mathile Abramson, Mrs. Lewis A. Bannon, The Exxon Educational Foundation and Mr. Maurice R. Meslans unrest on the French Caribbean colony of Saint Domingue (Haiti). A number of silversmiths were forced to emigrate to America with the majority resettling in New Orleans. Relatively little is known about Pierre Lamothe who resided in St. Marc, Saint Domingue, where he married Marie Couvertié, a native of Port-au-Prince. Marie was the daughter of silversmith Jean Couvertié. Both Pierre Lamothe and Jean Couvertié were the fathers of a pair of sons who became silversmiths. All of this extended family fled to Santiago de Cuba about 1803. The subsequent expulsion of the French colonials from Cuba brought all of these related individuals to the United States during the period 1805 to 1810 and to New Orleans by 1810 to 1815. In addition to the usual dinner flatware, Pierre Lamothe is 384 NEW ORLEANS-MADE SILVERWARE OF THE EIGHTEENTH AND NINETEENTH CENTURIES known for his long, heavy French style fiddle-back pattern serving spoons that are variously referred to as clabber (curdled milk) spoons in old Natchitoches families or as ragout (stew) spoons in South Louisiana. In shape and size, they relate to the colonial Anglo-American stuffing spoons. It is also known that Lamothe made some of the large flat-bottomed punch ladles and at least one large set of sugar tongs having acorn-shaped nippers. Pierre Lamothe’s two sons were both born in St. Marc, Saint Domingue—the eldest Jean-Marie was born on March 1, 1795, and the younger Jean-Baptiste on March 13, 1800. Jean-Marie Lamothe served as a sergeant in Plauche’s Battalion, Louisiana Militia, during the Battle of New Orleans in January 1815. Doubtless trained by his father, Jean-Marie worked with his father from 1819 to 1823 and was known variously under then names of Lamothe et fils, cadet Lamothe and Jean Lamothe. The 1823 New Orleans City Directory gives the last listing for Pierre Lamothe, and the two sons carried on the business until 1844. Jean-Marie Lamothe died in 1880. Jean-Baptiste Lamothe continued in the jewelry business well into the 1850s and died in New Orleans in 1874. The brothers marked their wares with a handsome script “Lamothe,” in the same style that their father marked his work “P. Lamothe.” A number of examples of their flatware survive including rare teaspoons. More important is the extant battery of the small footed beakers from their workshop. In the years following the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, French-speaking and English-speaking residents of New Orleans were showing so much hostility toward each other that the state legislature passed an act dividing New Orleans into three municipalities on March 8, 1836. The first municipality was basically the French Quarter and Faubourg Marigny. The mayor of the First Municipality was authorized to have an official seal made. The English translation of the French commission reads: In the middle of said figure of the City Hall of New Orleans and around the edge will be inscribed these words ‘First Municipality of the City of New Orleans’ and to be paid for by the Treasury of this municipality, the cast of said official seal as well as the purchase of a press. The seal featured a view of the Cabildo, located on Jackson Square, as it was being used as the city hall. It shows the structure in its original Spanish colonial form without the mansard roof, which was added in 1847. The edge of the seal is engraved in script “Jn Lamothe”. The next group of silversmiths in New Orleans were the Anglo-Americans. The most prominent and prolific of this 

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A Unique Slant of Light: The Bicentennial History of Art in Louisiana

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