Guillaume Boucher (fl. 1240–1254), also known as William of Paris and William Boucher, was a French Parisian metalsmith and artisan who lived and worked in Karakorum, Mongolia during the reign of Möngke Khan.[1][2]
When the Flemish Franciscan missionary and traveller William of Rubruck reached Karakorum in 1254 on a mission from King Louis IX of France, he discovered a community of European Christians already present in service of the Great Khan, including Boucher.[3]
Present with Boucher in Karakorum were his wife, “a daughter of Lorraine, but born in Hungary”,[4] and an adopted son “who was a most excellent interpreter”.[5] Boucher had been living in either present day Belgrade, SerbiaorAlba Iulia, Romania when he was captured by Möngke's half-brother Böchek during a Mongol invasion in 1241 or 1242.[6] According to a woman from Metz William of Rubruck met at the Great Khan's winter camp, Boucher's brother Roger still lived on the Grand Pont in Paris.[7][8]
In addition to crafting jewelry for Mongolian women and altars for Nestorian Christians, Boucher's works included the Silver Tree, a towering tree-shaped mechanical drinking fountain sculpture outside the Great Khan's palace.[9][10]
The structure included a trumpet-blowing angel, four silver lions “all belching the forth white milk of mares,” and gilded serpents pouring wine, clarified mare's milk, bal (a honey drink), and rice mead into silver receiving bowls.[11][12]
While remains of the fountain are as of yet undiscovered,[13] German-Italian Medieval and Renaissance scholar Leonardo Olschki believed some of Boucher's works may still exist in the Erdene Zuu Monastery, which was constructed from the ruins of Karakorum in the sixteenth century.[14]
