Elizabeth Godfrey

"[1] The daughter of Simon Pantin, a renowned silversmith himself, Godfrey was born in London and is believed to have been trained in her father's workshop.

[2] Despite obvious success as an artist in her own right, her work has been largely periodised by her marriages to men.

Godfrey married twice, both times to silversmiths with whom she shared her business in London.

[3] He died in 1741, at which point she again began to head the business by herself, a period in which her firm's skill at producing increasingly popular Rococo aesthetics garnered loyal clientele.

[4] This was a period when many women traders were active in London, and the luxury trades were a sector in which they were particularly successful.