Dessert Spoon

Silversmith Peter Lambert (Aberdeen, Scotland, active c.1804 - 1818)

Datec. 1820

Object NameSpoon

Mediumsilver

ClassificationsApplied Art

DimensionsOverall: Length: 18.1 cm
Maximum: Width: 3.7 cm

LocationView by Appointment - Aberdeen Treasure Hub

Object numberABDAG000950

Keywords

About MePeter Lambert was born in London in 1780, the son of Robert Lambert, a cooper from Berwick on Tweed and Jean Urquhart from Aberdeen. It is a mark of the value obviously
placed on an education at Gordon’s Hospital that Peter’s parents sent him to Aberdeen to apply for a place there, through his maternal grandfather Peter Urquhart, a wright and
Burgess in the city. Peter attended the Hospital from December 1790 until May 1796 when he, at 11,was apprenticed as a silversmith to John Allan, husband of his aunt Janet Urquhart. This is the same John Allan who was a former pupil at the Hospital and apprentice of Nathaniel Gillet. It appears Peter Lambert did not complete his apprenticeship with his uncle but in Berwick,
where he registered as a goldsmith in 1801. He must have returned to work in Aberdeen, because he is recorded as taking on four apprentices there including James Morison from
Gordon’s Hospital in 1810. However he also continued his business in Berwick, and possibly set one up in Montrose. It is most likely that he travelled between the towns by sea. In 1820 he finally settled in Berwick where he carried on working for another 30 years. He died there in 1869, aged 89.

Gordon, Gillet and Lambert all became members of the Hammermen, the trade organisation for workers in metal, and Gillet was actually elected Deacon, serving on the Town Council. To be accepted they had to submit an “essay”, consisting of examples of their work to be judged by their peers. All three were also admitted as goldsmith Burgesses of the City of Aberdeen.
After 1845 only two boys leaving Robert Gordon’s Hospital chose to become apprenticed to silversmiths or jewellers. It is not clear why the close link with the Aberdeen Silver trade
was broken. However, for almost a century, the Hospital had fed, clothed and educated a continuous stream of poor boys, and through its scheme of apprenticeships enabled a number of them not only to learn the craft of the silversmith but in some cases to train a new generation there including James Morison from Gordon’s Hospital in 1810.