Jean or Jehan Hotman (died 1555) was a Parisian goldsmith who worked for King Francis I of France.
Career He was a son of the goldsmith Guillaume Hotman. Pierre Mangot and Jean Hotman probably supplied the many gifts given by Francis I to Henry VIII and his courtiers at the Field of the Cloth of Gold in 1520.Glenn Richardson, "Personal gift giving at the Field of the Cloth of Gold", Thomas Betteridge & Suzannah Lipscomb, Henry VIII and the Court: Art, Politics and Performance (Ashgate, 2013), pp. 57–58. Thibault Hotman, another goldsmith serving the French court, was his brother.Henry Havard, Histoire de l'orfèvrerie française, p. 310..
Hotman made or provided a number of diplomatic gifts including gifts for John Clerk, Bishop of Bath, and the retinue of Cardinal Wolsey in 1527,Collection des ordonnances des rois de France: catalogue des actes de François Ier, 1 (Paris, 1887), pp. 518 no. 2735, 524 no. 2762. a gold cup presented to the English diplomat Thomas Boleyn in 1534,Henry Havard, Histoire de l'orfèvrerie française, p. 353: Collection des ordonnances des rois de France: catalogue des actes de François Ier, 2 (Paris, 1888), p. 719 no. 7244. and gold and silver gilt vessels given to the Dukes of Norfolk and Suffolk at the Calais interview in October 1532, and gilt plate to Francis Bryan an envoy to France in 1532.Collection des ordonnances des rois de France: catalogue des actes de François Ier, 2 (Paris, 1888), pp. 233 nos. 4993, 4994, 607 no. 6728. He provided cupboards of silver gilt plate given by Francis I to the English envoy Francis Poyntz in November 1527.Ambassades en Angleterre de Jean du Bellay (Paris, 1895), p. 54 fn and to David Beaton, a Scottish diplomat who negotiated the marriages of James V,Léon, Marquis de Laborde, Les comptes des bâtiments du roi, 2 (Paris, 1877), pp. 246, 387: Collection des ordonnances des rois de France: catalogue des actes de François Ier, 2 (Paris, 1888), p. 564 no. 6458: Perin Westerhof Nyman, "Mourning Madeleine and Margaret: Dress and Meaning in the Memorials for Two Scottish Queens, 1537 and 1541", Scottish Historical Review, 100:3 (December 2021), p. 369.
Some payments to Hotman were made to his factor or commis Antoine le Bossu. Jean Hotman had premises at the Pont au Change in Paris.Germain Bapst, Histoire des joyaux de la couronne de France, p. 97. He purchased several portions of a property in Paris known as the Maison des Balances in the Rue de la Calandre from booksellers.P. Renouard, Documents sur les imprimeurs, libraires: cartiers, graveurs, fondeurs de lettres (Paris: Champion, 1901), p. 42.
Jewels for the King of Scotland When James V visited France in 1536–1537, according to an agent of George Douglas, his enthusiasm for shopping in person in Paris was noted with amusement by the merchant community.Lucinda H. S. Dean, '"richesse in fassone and in fairness": Marriage, Manhood and Sartorial Splendour for Sixteenth-century Scottish Kings', Scottish Historical Review, 100:3 (December 2021), p. 393 : Rosalind K. Marshall, "The Jewellery of James V, King of Scots", Jewellery Studies, 7 (1996), pp. 83–84: John Pinkerton, The History of Scotland under the House of Stuart, 2 (London: Dilly, 1797), p. 338.Agnes Strickland, Lives of the Queens of Scotland: Magdalene of France, 1 (Edinburgh: Blackwood, 1850), p. 289. He appointed Hotman as his goldsmith.Andrea Thomas, Princelie Majestie (Edinburgh: John Donald, 2005), p. 229. Thibault Hotman supplied silver gilt plate for his bride Madeleine of Valois.Léon, Marquis de Laborde, Les comptes des bâtiments du roi, 2 (Paris, 1877), p. 234: Collection des ordonnances des rois de France: Catalogue des actes de François 1er, 8 (Paris, 1905), p. 114 nos. 30297, 30298, 30299Sally Rush, 'French Fashion in Sixteenth-Century Scotland: The 1539 Inventory of James V's Wardrobe', Furniture History, 42 (2006), 1-25.
James V visited merchants and workshops in France and gave tips of money (known as "drinksilver") to the craftsmen and apprentices. The Scottish treasurer's accounts detail a number of works provided to James V by the Hotmans including the three gold cups which James V gave to Francis I, Eleanor of Austria and the Grand Master Anne de Montmorency, buttons, gold thistles, and other dress accessories, plates and candlesticks, a silver gilt nef, and silver plate for the royal chapel.James Balfour Paul, Accounts of the Treasurer of Scotland, 7 (Edinburgh, 1907), pp. 19, 23, 31–37: Accounts of the Treasurer of Scotland, 6 (Edinburgh, 1905), pp. 450–466. Two "target" brooches and some buttons and fastenings costing 41 Francs were delivered to James's pursemaster Henry Kemp, who looked after the king's hats.Accounts of the Treasurer of Scotland, 6 (Edinburgh, 1905), p. 456.
James V wore some of the jewels and a set of azure enamelled buttons for his Royal Entry to Paris. Although John Penman, the agent of George Douglas, wrote that his spending had "beggared all Scotland", the king's purchases were in part funded by the dowry provided by Francis I.Rosalind K. Marshall, The Jewellery of James V, King of Scots, Jewellery Studies, 7 (1996), p. 84: John Pinkerton, The History of Scotland under the House of Stuart, 2 (London: Dilly, 1797), p. 490 the agent's name is also given as "Penven".
Pierre Hotman Jean Hotman was survived by his widow Thomasse Le Lorraine. Their children included Pierre Hotman, sieur de Fontenay.Collection de documents pour servir a l'histoire des hopitaux de Paris, 3 (Paris, 1883), p. 299. Pierre Hotman was also a goldsmith.Catherine Grodecki, Documents du minutier central des notaires de Paris, 2 (Paris: Archives Nationales, 1986), p. 265 no. 937. In 1571, Claude of Valois, Duchess of Lorraine, asked him to send her some dolls "as well-clothed as he could find", with a set of miniature silver plates for a buffet, intended as a present for Christine, the new-born daughter of Renata of Lorraine, Duchess of Bavaria.Léon, Marquis de Laborde, Notice des Emaux, Bijoux, et Objets divers exposés dans le Musèe des Galeries du Louvre (Paris, 1854), p. 465: Dictionnaire Historique de l'Ancien Langage Francois, vol. 7 (Niort: Favre), p. 324.
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