(b Paris, 19 Aug 1674; d Paris, 1748). He was the son of the Parisian silversmith Pierre Germain (d 1684), who became a master in 1670 and was granted lodgings in the Louvre, Paris, in 1679 as an Orfèvre du Roi. Pierre executed a large number of silver items for the château of Versailles (1680–84), but most of his work is known only from archival evidence. Thomas was at first apprenticed to the painter Louis Boullogne (ii), but during his years in Rome (c. 1685–1704) he trained as a silversmith and was active as an independent silversmith by 1697.

Part of the Germain family

• Germain, Thomas
  • Falconet, Etienne-Maurice, §1(ii): Work for the Marquise de Pompadour; small models and groups
  • France, §IX, 1(iii)(b): Gold and silver: 18th-century forms and styles
  • France, §IX, 2(iii)(a): Base metalwork, 1600–1800: Gilt-bronze
  • assistants
    • Robillon, Jean-Baptiste
  • groups and movements
    • Rococo, §II, 3: France: Genre pittoresque or rocaille, after c 1730
  • patrons and collectors
    • Paris, §IV, 1: Centre of gold and silver production
  • pupils
    • Boucheron
  • works
    • Braganza: (7) John V, King of Portugal
    • Germain: (2) François-Thomas Germain
    • Portugal, §IX: Gold and silver