Design and Art Australia Online

Silversmith and merchant who was born son of Thomas Habgood of Newdegate Street, in the city of London, later of 16 Hatton Garden, then a Liveryman of The Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths. In February 1826 Thomas Stephen was apprenticed to his father, the year his elder brother William Bowles completed his apprenticeship.
Thomas Stephen and his brothers William and John Habgood were interested in acquiring land and were original signatories to the West Australian Land and Immigration Committee in 1828. The first of the brothers to set out for the new colony was William who immigrated to Western Australia in 1830 to be followed by his seventeen-year-old brother Robert Mace Habgood in 1831.
In London in 1832 Thomas was a journeyman completing his masterpiece, a requirement for entry into the Goldsmith’s Company. The 'Stirling Cup’ engraved “Thomas Habgood facit Hatton Garden” is thought to be his masterpiece. However, as there were two Thomas Habgoods, father and son, it is not possible to be absolutely certain. However it is probable that it was the younger man’s 'masterpiece’ as he became Freeman of the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths in April 1833. It is hallmarked “IRT”, followed by a lion passant, leopard’s head, date letter “r “for 1832, and the queen’s-head duty-mark. The maker’s mark “IRT” is not listed in Culme’s enormous work on London hallmarks. When more than one member of a family in a firm had the same initials, completely different letters were known to be used for the younger person. The cup is magnificent and is in the collection of the Western Australian Museum. It is a large, two-handled, lidded, campana-vase of classical derivation. A detailed agricultural scene is chased and repoussé on the bowl which is supported by four dolphins on a circular plinth, floral motifs, shells and foliage decorate the handles and rim and the conical lid is surmounted by a knob formed in the shape of a swan. The silver cup was presented to Captain Stirling, Lieutenant Governor of Western Australia 'by the friends of the grateful colonists’ in 1833. There is considerable suitability in the symbols used. Dolphins, for a mariner, supporting scallop shells, above which is chased an agricultural scene, symbolic of the colony Stirling established, with the whole surmounted by a swan, emblem of the Swan River Settlement.

In 1837 John Habgood made a short sojourn in Western Australia leaving in 1841. On his return Thomas Stephen set off for Western Australia and arrived on the “Houghton-le-Skerne” in 1842. He became involved in the whale-oil trade in the 1840s. In the 1850s Thomas established a candle factory in conjunction with Frederic Glaskin a former apprentice of his father’s who arrived in 1849. They set up a jewellery business on the corner of St George’s Terrace and William Street in Perth. Dé Courcy Lefroy recorded in his diary that he purchased a “perfect little beskew of a gold pencil case from Habgoods to give Elizabeth Brockman who was later his wife. An advertisement on page one of the Perth Gazette on June 21, 1854 lists the stock Habgood imported on the Travancore: “... an assortment of ladies rings, brooches, lockets, earrings, smelling bottles, vinaigrettes, shawl brooches, silver thimbles, mourning brooches, bracelets, gentlemen’s Albert chains, rings, shirt studs, pencil cases, double-sided coloured spectacles and goggles, etc., wedding rings and keepers, watch glasses.” There was a ready trade as the few qualified goldsmiths in the colony had preferred to become landowners and little was made except by Glaskin.

Thomas Habgood senior died in 1856 and in 1859 William returned to England to rejoin the family firm from where he continued to supply Glaskin with jewellery. Thomas Stephen’s address was 73 Myddleton Square, Clerkenwell, London. His wealthy younger brother Robert, who has married in Western Australia, also returned for his children’s education. Robert, who was not a trained jeweller, became a Freeman of the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths by patrimony. He had a very successful pearl-dealing business and import-export trade. His Australian business was run by his son-in-law, John de Mansfield Absolon. Robert died in 1876 and Thomas Stephen in 1888.

Writers:

Erickson, Dorothy (Dr)

Date written:

2011

Last updated:

2011