An impressive George II silver salver. 
Augustine Courtauld, 
London, 1732. 
The shaped,...

Augustine Courtauld (1686-1751) was the son of a Huguenot refugee who had fled to England from the small town of St. Pierre in the Ile d’Oleron following the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685, which left Protestants facing persecution in France. Augustine served a seven-year apprenticeship with the Huguenot goldsmith, Simon Pantin (who had himself trained under the renowned Huguenot goldsmith, Pierre Harache) before being made free in 1708.

In his introduction to ‘Some Silver Wrought by the Courtauld family of London Goldsmiths in the Eighteenth Century’,  E. A. Jones describes Augustine Courtauld as ‘a craftsman capable of doing fine work, not inferior to that of the much lauded Paul de Lamerie, as may be proved by the plate described an illustrated in this book’. The same book goes on to illustrate this 1732-33 salver (Plate XXXIII), describing it as ‘an impressive salver, 19^5/8 inches in diameter, chased on the border with ornament attributed to Hogarth but executed in 1732-3, some years after he has abandoned the minor art of engraving silver for higher forms of art’. Augustine Courtauld is known to have made a number of trays and salvers, with Jones explaining that ‘the making and application of the complex, shaped borders called for the highest technical skill’.

Augustine Courtauld was working at a time when the goldsmithing trade was flourishing in England, with business buoyed by increasing prosperity and a desire to invest wealth in silver. According to Jones, the standard of workmanship achieved during this century has 'never been surpassed' and it is interesting to note that many of the most important works of silver were produced by Huguenot craftsmen in the first quarter of the 18^th century.

Works by Augustine Courtauld were acquired by numerous important and wealthy patrons, including Empress Elizabeth of Russia and Empress Catherine I of Russia. One of his significant works, The State Salt of the Corp. of the City of London is on display at Mansion House.  

Engraving

In her book, A Century of Silver by the Courtauld Family of Silversmiths, Helen Braham notes that the engraving on several works by Augustine Courtauld has been attributed to Joseph Sympson, whose career (1710-1747) coincided with Augustine's. She writes that 'two engravers named Joseph Sympson, presumably father and son, were among the early members of the St Martin's Lane Academy, a centre of crucial artistic importance, founded in 1720; their workshop was evidently soon employed by some of the most prominent silversmiths of the day'. She goes on to highlight the challenges associated with attributing work to individual engravers as 'designs in pattern books were available to all, and reproduction was possible from paper transfers and from 'pulls' from existing engravings'.

For a salver with engraving by William Hogarth in the Victoria and Albert Museum please see: The Walpole Salver, by Paul de Lamerie, London, 1728-1729, accession number M.9-1956. Link:  https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O7768/the-walpole-salver-salver-paul-de-lamerie/ . The production notes for this salver on the website of the V&A Museum state that 'When John Nichols published Biographical Anecdotes of William Hogarth (1781) he listed a pull from this [Walpole] salver [...] more recently both Oman (1978) and Paulson (1970 and 1971) have argued forcibly for accepting Nichols' evidence. In January 1714, William Hogarth was apprenticed through the Merchant Taylor's Company to the goldsmith, Ellis Gamble, as an engraver, for whom he later engraved a tradecard (ca. 1724). From 1720 when Hogarth set up shop, he spent a decade supporting himself as a jobbing engraver, engraving both silver and copper plates .... Apart from shopcards, he presumably worked for whichever goldsmith sent him orders; a single impression of Lamerie's own arms in the Royal Library is attributed to Hogarth and he engraved arms on silver for various clients, including the Duchess of Kendal, mistress of George I.'

The salver in our sale by Augustine Courtauld was hallmarked in 1732, a little after the 'decade supporting himself as a jobbing engraver' but E. A. Jones writes in the introduction to Some Silver Wrought by the Courtauld Family of London Goldsmiths in the Eighteenth Century that this 1732-33 salver is 'chased on the border with ornament attributed to Hogarth but executed in 1732-3, some years after he has abandoned the minor art of engraving silver for higher forms of art’. 

References:

E. A. Jones, Some Silver Wrought by the Courtauld Family of London Goldsmiths in the Eighteenth Century, Oxford, 1940, p. 61, pl. XXXII

The Victoria & Albert Museum: https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O7768/the-walpole-salver-salver-paul-de-lamerie/ 

J.F. Hayward, The Courtauld Silver, An Introduction to the Work of the Courtauld Family of Goldsmiths, Sotheby Parke Bernet Publications, London & New York

H. Braham, A Century of Silver by the Courtauld Family of Silversmiths, 1710-1780, pp 16-17