John Pelletier

Who is John Pelletier?

John Pelletier was a French Huguenot carver and gilder, who emigrated from Paris, where he had trained, and worked in London. He provided high-style Baroque furniture for the court of William and Mary, specializing in carved, gessoed and gilded furniture of the highest quality. He was also employed in providing carved and gilded picture and looking-glass frames and in gilding the work of other carvers.

After John Pelletier's death in 1704, his sons René and Thomas continued the workshop until they split in 1711, René pursuing a second career as a mounter of drawings, and Thomas, who was appointed cabinetmaker in ordinary to Queen Anne in 1704, as an auctioneer. Tessa Murdoch suggests, from Jean Pelletier's shaky handwriting in 1702, that he was already working in a supervisory capacity at that date.