A design for a silver cup and cover by Thomas Sharp (1805- 1882), circa 1842

A drawing of a silver cup and cover, shown in profile and perspective.Probably full size 318 x 152.
The form loosely based on a late sixteenth century German ‘pineapple’ cup, the sides of the bowl embossed with scenes from Hamlet, Macbeth and King Lear. The finial a standing figure of Shakespeare after Roubiliac’s statue in the British Museum, formerly in Garricks’ Temple, Hampton.
On the back of the sheet a tracing of the form on the front, an alternative treatment of the knop and a sketch showing a larger version of the bowl on the same stem.

This design is probably for a cup shown by Sharp at the Royal Academy in 1842, No. 1175: ‘ A Shakespeare cup, in silver, with subjects from Hamlet, Macbeth, King Lear, Julius Caesar, The Tempest and Othello, embossed thereon’.
The watercolour in blue, red and green may represent the addition of enamel.
Bought in 1885 from the dealer R. Jackson for 1s and 6d as an anonymous design.
Thomas Sharp was a sculptor, chaser and wax modeller, who also designed silver. He attended the Royal Academy schools in 1831 and gained a silver medal three years later.That he may have been connected with Rundell, Bridge and Rundell is suggested by the tankard design E. 357- 1886, and the fact that two persons named Sharp, Cato and Josiah, were managers of Rundell’s Dean Street workshop until 1833 (J. Culme, Nineteenth Century Silver, 1977, p. 81).

D.2212-1885