Robert Amadas & Nicholas Bartholomew
Robert Amadas was a London Goldsmith whose clients included King Henry VIII and his courtiers. He was Master of the King's Jewel House and one of the Deputy Masters of the Mint. In Henry VIII’s inventories, he has been identified as the largest supplier to the King and Cardinal Wolsey.
Amadas was trained as a goldsmith by his father. He was a free apprentice of the Goldsmiths' Company in 1492 and "fully sworn to the Company in 1494".
In 1503, he was admitted to the livery. He was one of the Company's Wardens in 1511 and 1515, and Prime Warden in 1524 and again in 1530. The last mention of him in the Company's records was on 15 January 1532, when his apprentice, Brian Berwycke, was sworn to the Company.
Nicholas Bartholomew was one of the most important makers of the period. He used a makers mark of "a crescent enclosing a mullet". He started his career in 1545 and worked at the Woolsack near Gutter Lane. He had 10 apprentices between 1550 and 1587.
