François Briot

• Name — François Briot • Other Names — Cellini of Pewter • Birth Name — François Briot • Born — 1550 • Birthplace — Damblain, Duchy of Lorraine • Died — 26 April 1616 • Place of death — Montbéliard (Mömpelgard), County of Württemberg • Father — Urbain Briot

François Briot was born in 1550 in Damblain in the Duchy of Lorraine (present-day Vosges, France). Briot inherited both his Protestant faith and his pewterer's trade from his Huguenot family in Lorraine. In 1579, he left the Catholic-controlled Lorraine and took refuge in Mömpelgard (now Montbéliard) amid the tumultuous French Wars of Religion.

Records document Briot's acceptance into the Corporation of Saint Eligius, the guild of metalworkers under the patronage of the goldsmiths' saint, in 1580. He was sworn into the guild on 12 April 1580, by Jehan Morel, the guild master, and Richard Jalloux, a guild servant. Briot's earliest known work is a medal from 1585 depicting a three-year-old Prince John Frederick of Württemberg, son of the sovereign Count of Montbéliard. Around this time, Briot became chief engraver to Frederick I. By the following year, Briot appeared in the ranks of the burghers of Montbéliard. In addition to seal engraving, he executed his work on embossed pewter, in particular, fine rosewater dishes and companion ewers, decorated with arabesque ornaments in low relief. Early pewter use in France and Germany was mainly used by the court, the nobility, and high-ranking church officials, whose tastes emphasized more complex shapes and more ornate decoration than those found in England. Briot's chef-d'œuvre is a famous pewter basin representing Temperance. It is said to have been created between 1585 and 1590. He engraved two medals in 1593 depicting the effigy and arms of Prince John Frederick, who later inherited the Duchy of Württemberg. He also executed a medal for Duke Frederick of Württemberg when he was made a Knight of the Garter. Briot served as an engraver to the Mint at Stuttgart from 1593 to 1609. Around 1601, he was implicated in the accounts of Laurent de Willermin, who had received large sums from Frederick I to search for fictitious lead and silver mines in Franche-Comté. The resulting legal proceedings ruined Briot financially. He was ordered to pay a settlement of 6,752 florins and 11 batzen. In Montbéliard, he engraved a metal half-coin bearing the image of Emperor Matthias for the ceremonial coinage of the Besançon municipality between 1614 and 1615. During 1615, he was in Besançon supporting a coin-minting press invented by his relative Nicholas Briot.

His brother was Didier Briot, who also emigrated from Lorraine and became an engraver. Isaac Briot and Nicholas Briot, both engravers, were his nephews.

François Briot died on 26 April 1616, in Montbéliard, France.