These simple and beautiful candlesticks are among our favorite purchases this year. Though they date from the very beginning of Paul de Lamerie's career, they clearly show by their subtly bolder proportions why he would so quickly (only three years later) earn the title Goldsmith to the King. These were made for a member of the Huguenot Chenevix family, whose English origins can be traced to Philip Chenevix, who fought and died at the Battle of Blenheim in 1704. He left his son Paul Daniel to continue the family name as a retailer of high-end goods from a shop at the Sign of the Golden Door, meaning he was part of the same band of second generation Huguenot retailers as the maker of these candlesticks. (Thanks to the Huguenot Museum, Rochester, for this information.) These are one of only two surviving sets of four Lamerie candlesticks from the Queen Anne period.