This silver cup was presented to Thomas Bullen, as the engraved inscription records, ‘by a few commercial gentlemen in Testimony of their high opinion of his Public Character as a Coachman and of his Private Worth as a Man, Liverpool 14th August 1830’. Bullen must have been highly regarded, since a coachman would rarely possess such a piece of ornamental silver.

Bullen’s passengers would have spent several days in his company on trips between Liverpool and London. According to a contemporary commentator, ‘To the outside passenger there was always the excitement before starting of guessing what sort of man the coachman would turn out to be. Some few were very bad coachmen and surly individuals, but the bulk of them were cheery jovial fellows, full of anecdotes of adventures and accidents either to themselves or others, careful of the comforts of their…passengers, and masters of the art of driving.’

Variations of the design of this cup appear in the pattern books of the silversmiths Edward Barnard and Sons, one of the largest and most important manufacturing silversmiths in the 19th century, supplying retailers all over Britain with good-quality silver.