Farrell's apprenticeship or freedom are unrecorded, and his early life is relatively unknown. Holden's Triennial Directory of 1805-7 described him as a silversmith, but his first mark was not registered until 1813. The most productive period of Farrell's career coincided with his association with the entrepreneur, silversmith, and jeweller Kensington Lewis, whose most important patron was Frederick, Duke of York. Lewis was supplied with extravagant sculptural plate in a variety of revival styles by Farrell, drawing principally on seventeenth-century Flemish, German and Italian designs in high relief. Lewis' business was unable to recover from the death of the Duke of York in 1827, and Farrell no longer had the opportunity to make the plate on such a grand scale. Thereafter, he was best known for highly embossed tea services chased with decoration derived from seventeenth-century Dutch genre painting.
A GEORGE III SILVER RECTANGULAR KETTLE DISH
LONDON 1819
A PAIR OF GEORGE IV SILVER-GILT MONUMENTAL EWERs
LONDON 1824
A GEORGE IV SILVER-GILT SAUCE BOAT
LONDON 1824
A GEORGE III SILVER-GILT TEA-CADDY
LONDON 1817
A GEORGE III SILVER SUGAR BOWL
LONDON 1819
A GEORGE III SILVER-GILT TANKARD
LONDON 1817
A GEORGE III SILVER KETTLE ON LAMPSTAND
LONDON 1817
A GEORGE IV SILVER TEAPOT
LONDON 1822
