Classical Silver Presentation Pitcher
Bearing the inscription:
“New England Guards to Lemuel Blake Esq.”
Impressed mark: Farnam & Ward
Boston c.1816
33 oz., H: 10”
Henry Farnam (active in Boston 1796-1830) joined with Richard Ward for only one year. An identical silver pitcher in the collection of the Peabody Essex Museum, marked by Ward, alone, and dated 1819, inscribed New England Guards to Benjamin T. Pickman Esq., was published in The Magazine Antiques, December 1983, p. 1192. According to advertisements placed in the Columbian Centinel, Farnam had previously been in partnership with his older brother, Rufus, offering watches, clocks, jewelry and silver plate at 15 Cornhill, Boston. Richard Ward was previously in partnership with John Jones, also listed at 15 Cornhill in 1813, which suggests the possibility that both Jones and Ward had worked for the Farnam brothers.
