ANTIQUE SILVER GARRARD AND CO
The founder of Garrards was one George Wickes (1698 - 1761) who was apprenticed to Samuel Wastell in 1712 and entered his first mark in 1721. At the age of 35 he was appointed to the coveted post of Goldsmith, Jeweller & Silversmith to the Prince of Wales. This enabled him to supply commission work to other members of the Royal Family, and many other important patrons ranging from Dukes and Duchesses through to Bishops and Arch-Bishops. This period established Garrards and their long association with the nobility of Great Britain.
In 1747 Wickes entered into partnership with Edward Wakelin, who seems to have taken over the running of the business, almost immediately, as very little silverware made by Wickes appears after this date.In 1751 Wickes took on an apprentice, John Parker, who later entered a joint mark with Edward Wakelin. The exact date of this mark is unknown as the register of Large Plateworkers from 1758 to 1773 is missing at the Goldsmiths and Silversiths Hall.
Wakelin and Parker continued to make very fine example of silver tableware over the course of the next 15 years with patrons including the Duke of Cumberland and his nephew Prince Henry. They also utilised the expertise of many other manufacturing silversmiths including Ebenezer Coker, William Chawner, and the Hennell family.
In 1766 Wakelin's son, John, entered into the business, and in 1776 he registered a joint mark with William Taylor, at which date both John Parker and Edward Wakelin retired from the business. The next 15 years brought in a period of consolidation and the business continued to produce fine items of silverware.
But in 1792 William Taylor left the firm and this is where the Garrard name was introduced with Wakelin taking on a new partner in Robert Garrard (1758 - 1818). Ten years later Wakelin died and ownership of the firm was transferred to the Garrard family, with which it remained for over one hundred and fifty years.
Robert Garrard achieved control of the firm, not through brilliant design or craftmanship, but mainly through sound business acumen. It was under the guiding hand of Robert Garrard II (1793 - 1881), that saw the rise of Garrards to the most pre-eminent position of Royal Goldsmiths and Crown Jewellers. Thus succeeding Paul Storr's firm of Rundell & Bridge, in 1843, by the order of Queen Victoria, and a post which the firm still holds today.