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Jean, Peter Dominique (1764-1807)

Jean, Peter Dominique, near Windmill St, Tottenham Ct Rd, London, ormolu maker (1764–1807). As Jean Dominique, he is recorded in the Royal Household accounts and Jourdain, Regency Furniture trading at Marshall St as a gilder and founder, 1783/95. An important supplier of fine mounts to the leading London furniture makers of his day. On 20 October 1764 he married Marie Françoise, daughter of the cabinet maker Pierre Langlois, and probably thereafter supplied mounts for his father-in-law. He also took Pierre Langlois's son, Daniel, as app. in 1771. It is not only with Langlois that there are clear connections. Amongst the items supplied by Jean in the last months of 1783 were mounts for furniture and chimney pieces, some of which were for delivery to the cm Christopher Fuhrlohg. A further connection with Fuhrlohg is found in the accounts for Audley End, Essex. In 1786 Lord Howard paid Jean for gilding ornaments for two commodes, gilding five sets of locks and ‘gilding and finishing 5 rings for a Cabinet delivered to Mr. Fuhrlohg’. A sum of £27 was paid in November 1786 in settlement. It also seems likely that the mounts on the library desk at Osterley, Middlx came from Jean, and this in turn might point to John Linnell as one of his customers.

Apart from items supplied for the embellishment of furniture and passing through the hands of various cm, Jean supplied ormolu directly to clients. Between October 1783 and midsummer 1786 he provided furnishings for Carlton House to the order of the Prince of Wales amounting to £1,409 16s. Only one detailed invoice survives, and is for the period October to 2 December 1783. The major item in this was a pair of five branch chandeliers with figures and trophies, for which £320 was charged. At Carlton House Jean worked for Gaubert and Holland, gilding ‘the ornaments of an inlaid commode delivered to M. Furlogh’, and supplying mouldings to ‘Mr Walker’ (Wacker?), ‘Mr Furlogh’, and M. ‘Prussurot’. For this work, Jean's bill totalled £480. [RA, Windsor, 34953–54, 25050; Essex RO, D/DBy/A44/7–8; Goodison, Ormolu, pp. 21–22, 173]

The original entry from Dictionary of English Furniture Makers, 1660-1840 can be found at British History Online.