Object Description
A handsome antique sterling silver jug of baluster shape on a plain circular cast foot. Sparrow beak lip. Contains 1100 ml. Weight 679 grams, 21.8 troy ounces. Height 20 cm. Spread 16.5 cm. Diameter 8 cm. London 1748. Makers mark Thomas Whipham.
Biography – Thomas Whipham, London silversmith. Apprenticed to Thomas Farren 1723, free 1737. First mark entered as largeworker 1737. Second mark 1739. Third mark, in partnership with William Williams I (also apprenticed to Farren in 1731), 1740. Livery 1746. Court 1752. Fourth mark, in partnership with Charles Wright October 1757. Warden 1765-7, and Prime Warden 1771. Recorded in 1780 as the purchaser of the church plate of Stoke Bruern, Northants, for £50.12s.8d., the new set having been made by his partner Wright in 1776. In 1743 Whipham entered the widow Ann Farren’s mark on the death of Thomas Farren by power of attorney and probably acting as Farren’s executor. It is not known if he succeeded to the business and he did not move to Farren’s address, possibly his wife was a Farren. Thomas and Frances Whipham had a daughters Frances (b. 1741), Anne (b. 1742) and Mary (b. 1744) and a son Thomas (b.1747). Whipham died 1785 and was succeeded by his son Thomas. Thomas junior was free by patrimony 1768. Livery 1769, Court 1777, and Prime Warden 1790. He died 1815.