A REGENCY SILVER-GILT TANKARD

This and the other tankard in the Love Collection, lot 208, exemplify Farrell's earliest and most eclectic work. Based presumably on a late 17th century German tankard, the decoration incorporates both neo-classical and baroque elements. Farrell's retailer, Kensington Lewis, undoubtedly supplied Farrell with the antique prototypes for such historicist works.

Two other Farrell tankards exist with similar decoration, one sold in these Rooms, April 15, 1997, lot 260, and the other illustrated in Michael Clayton, Christie's Pictorial History of English and American Silver, 1985, fig.7, p.269.