A Fabulous George III Kettle Stand
Britannia silver London, 1818 Maker's mark of Edward Farrell
Height: 8.8cm, 3.5in Weight: 1,341g, 45 oz 2dwt
Grape vine and C-scroll-galleried triangular platter repousse-decorated with mythical creatures and floral sprays, centring two seahorses in a rocaille reserve, raised overall on rocaille bracket feet
Artist Biography:
Farrell's apprenticeship or freedom are unrecorded, and his early life is relatively unknown. Holden's Triennial Directory of 1805-7 described him as a silversmith, but his first mark was not registered until 1813. The most productive period of Farrell's career coincided with his association with the entrepreneur, silversmith, and jeweller Kensington Lewis, whose most important patron was Frederick, Duke of York. Lewis was supplied with extravagant sculptural plate in a variety of revival styles by Farrell, drawing principally on seventeenth-century Flemish, German and Italian designs in high relief. Lewis' business was unable to recover from the death of the Duke of York in 1827, and Farrell no longer had the opportunity to make the plate on such a grand scale. Thereafter, he was best known for highly embossed tea services chased with decoration derived from seventeenth-century Dutch genre painting.