Robert Garrard II subsequently R & S Garrard & Co
Six English Victorian Sterling Silver Plates , London 1842-1843
with shaped flap and gadronn edge.
Sterling silver, fully hallmarked under the flap London 1842-1843, silversmiths R & S Garrard & Co and inscribed "GARRARDS - PANTON STREET - LONDON".
The founder of the firm was George Wickes who was apprenticed to Samuel Wastell in 1712 and free in 1720. His first mark was entered in 1722. He entered his Panton Street marks in 1735 and it is clear from the surviving Garrards' ledger that this is when he began an independent existence. The firm was known successively as George Wickes, Craig & Wickes, George Wickes, Wickes & Netherton, Parker & Wakelin, Wakelin & Taylor, Wakelin & Garrard and when Robert Garrard took sole control in 1802 it had already been established in Panton Street for sixty-seven years. On his death in 1818 he was succeeded by his three eldest sons Robert Garrard (junior), James Garrard and Sebastian Garrard, trading as R J & S Garrard. James Garrard appears to have retired c.1835 and from then until 1843, the year in which they succeeded Rundell, Bridge & Co as Crown Jewellers, they traded as R & S Garrard. From 1843 they were known as R & S Garrard & Co. and from 1909 they have traded as Garrard & Co Ltd .
Item condition grading: **** good, signs of use commensurate with use over time.
Jackson's p.62 - John Culme, 'The Directory of Gold & Silversmiths', Woodbridge 1987, Vol.1 p. 172, vol.2 p. 252 - Arthur G Grimwade, 'London Goldsmiths 1697-1837 Their Marks & Lives', London 1976, p. 168-519 -Elaine Barr, 'George Wickes, Royal Goldsmith', London 1980 -Christopher Lever, 'The Story of Garrards', The Connoisseur, June 1974.