(b Gray, c. 1520; d Dijon, 1601). French wood-carver, designer, architect and engineer. The son of the wood-carver Mammès Sambin, he is mentioned in 1544 in the woodworking accounts relating to the building of the château of Fontainebleau. His involvement in this project explains the strong Mannerist influence in all his work. He is recorded in Dijon in 1547, when he married the daughter of Jean Boudrillet, a maître-menuisier from Troyes. He worked from 15 May to 15 June 1548 with his father-in-law and two of his brothers, Guillaume Sambin and Claude Sambin, also wood-carvers, on decorations for the entry into Dijon of Henry II, King of France. In 1549 he became a maître-menuisier. In December 1551 he took part in the preparations for the entry into Dijon of the Duc d’Aumale, providing the designs for statues made by the sculptor Jean Damotte (d 1567). In that year he became master of the guild of menuisiers, a position that he held again from 1553 to 1555 and in 1558. He continued to work with his father-in-law over the years, completing a number of projects, among them the construction of a slaughterhouse (1559). From April to May 1564 he supervised works for the entry into Dijon of Charles IX, King of France.

• Sambin, Hugues
  • works
    • Dijon, §II: Art life and organization
    • Dijon, §III: Centre of furniture production
    • Frame, §III, 3: France: Mannerist
    • France, §II, 2(iii): Mannerist architecture, c 1560–c 1600
    • Grotesque, §3: 1530–1600
  • writings
    • France, §VI, 1: Furniture, before 1589
    • Orders, archit., §I, 2(iii)(c): Renaissance and after: Invention of new orders