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The Garrick tea service
Young, James - Enlarge image
The Garrick tea service
- Object:
Tea service
- Place of origin:
London, England (made)
- Date:
1774 - 1775 (made)
- Artist/Maker:
Young, James (maker)
Jackson, Orlando (maker) - Materials and Techniques:
Silver with ivory handles and chased decoration
- Credit Line:
Purchased with the assistance of The Art Fund
- Museum number:
M.24B-1973
- Gallery location:
British Galleries, room 118a, case 9
Object Type
The vase forms and decoration of fluting, swags and wreaths show that the service was made in the most stylish Neo-classical taste. Serving tea to company during this period was an opportunity for the display of status and wealth.
People
Regarded by some of their contemporaries as social climbers, the actor David Garrick and his wife, Eva, were nevertheless part of literary, artistic and aristocratic circles where fashionable clothing and furnishing were essential to credibility.
Places
The actor David Garrick purchased a London town house in architect, Robert Adam's fashionable Adelphi development by the river at Charing Cross, finished in 1772. The tea service was purchased as part of a large order of silver of £190 from the goldsmith Henry Shepherd and may have been intended to furnish the Garrick's new home in the Adelphi.
Trading
David Garrick ordered the service through the goldsmith, Henry Shepherd, who contracted out the making of the silver to the workshop of silversmiths James Young and Orlando Jackson. The silversmithing trade relied upon a complex network of skills and it was not unusual for several specialists to co-operate to make and decorate silver to the customer's specification. A surviving bill shows that this silver cost David Garrick the large sum of £88 14s.
