Paul Storr — The Pre-Eminent Regency Silversmith
Paul Storr — The Pre-Eminent Regency Silversmith
English silversmith and goldsmith (1771–1844) whose work for Rundell, Bridge & Rundell defined Regency-era royal and ceremonial silver
Paul Storr was the English silversmith and goldsmith whose work for Rundell, Bridge & Rundell — goldsmiths to King George III, the Prince Regent (later George IV), and a roster of British and continental aristocratic clients — defined the technical and aesthetic high water of Regency-era silver. Born in 1771 and apprenticed to Andrew Fogelberg, Storr registered his maker's mark at Goldsmiths' Hall in London in 1792 and worked first under his own name and then, from 1807, as the principal craftsman behind the Rundell, Bridge & Rundell production line. The firm's commissions during Storr's tenure included royal presentation pieces, the gold cup presented to the Duke of Wellington after Waterloo, the ceremonial silver of the Royal Household, and a long list of presentation pieces for naval, military, and civic occasions.
Training and the workshop
Storr's training under Fogelberg, a Swedish-born silversmith working in London, gave him grounding in the neoclassical idiom that had begun to displace Rococo through the late 1770s and 1780s. Storr's own workshop at Air Street, Piccadilly, and later at Harrison Street, Gray's Inn Road, employed teams of journeymen and apprentices working under his direction, with Storr personally supervising the casting, chasing, and final finish of major commissions. The collaboration with Rundell, Bridge & Rundell from 1807 onwards gave Storr access to the firm's design talent — most notably the artist John Flaxman, whose drawings provided the basis for many of Storr's most ambitious sculptural pieces.
Design and craftsmanship
Storr's work is characterised by bold neoclassical forms — vases, urns, and compositions drawn from Greek and Roman antecedents — combined with sculptural ornament of exceptional quality. The chasing and casting on Storr's pieces are technically among the finest work of the period, with crisp definition of detail, clean lines between cast and chased elements, and a finish that has held up across two centuries of handling and polishing without significant wear. Major works include silver-gilt centrepieces, candelabra, racing trophies, and ecclesiastical silver, with the most ambitious pieces incorporating figural sculpture in fully three-dimensional form rather than relief.
The Goldsmiths' Hall break and later career
Storr ended his association with Rundell, Bridge & Rundell in 1819 and entered into partnership with John Mortimer at Mortimer & Storr, which became Storr & Mortimer in 1822. The new firm continued to produce work in the Regency idiom for the same client base, though Storr's personal involvement diminished after his retirement in 1838. He died in 1844 at the age of seventy-three.
Storr in museum collections
Major Storr pieces are held in the Royal Collection (the Wellington Cup and other ceremonial silver), the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, and major private collections worldwide. The standard reference work is N. M. Penzer's Paul Storr 1771–1844: Silversmith and Goldsmith (1954), which catalogues hundreds of identified Storr pieces and remains the foundational scholarly account.
In the trade
Signed Storr silver — marked with his registered punch — commands significant premiums at auction over comparable Regency-period silver from other workshops. The premium reflects Storr's reputation, the Royal and aristocratic provenance of much of his work, and the consistently high technical execution. Authentication is straightforward where the piece carries a clean Storr mark and assay marks consistent with the period; where marks are worn or partially obscured, attribution requires comparison with documented pieces and consultation of the Penzer catalogue. Storr's influence on jewellery is indirect but real, through the integration of gem-set ornamental elements in ceremonial metalwork and the broader influence of his neoclassical design idiom on contemporary jewellery makers.