Cup and Cover

Louisa Perina Courtauld (1729–1807) ran the silver business upon her husband Samuel’s death in 1765. After a couple of years on her own, she went into partnership with George Cowles, her late husband’s former apprentice.

In 1780, Louisa Courtauld sold the business and the family turned to silk weaving, eventually founding the textile company Courtaulds Ltd. Its chairman in the 1920s was Samuel Courtauld, whose collection of Impressionist paintings is displayed in The Courtauld's Great Room.