British picture framemakers, 1600-1950 – T – National Portrait Gallery

George Tacchi ( c.1820-90 ), see Foord & Dickinson
Updated November 2020
* Joseph Tanous 1910-1912, Tanous Bros 1913-1917 and subsequently, Joseph Tanous 1918-1936 and subsequently, John Tanous 1938-1955 ; not traced here thereafter. At 54 College Place, Chelsea, London 1910-1912, 103 Walton St, Chelsea 1912-1914, 349 Fulham Road 1913-1936, 23 Ives St, Chelsea 1937-1938, 130 King ’ s Rd 1938, 116 Draycott Avenue 1939-1945, 159 King ’ s Rd 1947-1953, diverse addresses from 1947 including 159-161 and 183 Draycott Avenue, SW3, 115 Harwood Road, Fulham SW6 4QL from 1963. movie framemakers .
Joseph Tanous ( c.1886-1948 ) and his brother John ( 1897-1972 ) were the children of Joseph and Elizabeth Tanous, a lebanese Catholic couple, recorded as yield in Beirut as turkish subjects, who married in England in the early 1880s. In the 1901 census, Joseph was recorded as an apprentice framemaker, long time 15. He started his own commercial enterprise in or before 1910, initially listed in the London directory under the name Tanners. In the 1911 census he was recorded at his parents ’ dwelling, 56 College Place, Chelsea, as a mental picture framemaker working on his own score at home. Joseph took his brother, John, into partnership in 1913 when he left school. Joseph advertised as an aesthetic framer in 1928, offering hand-carved frames at musical composition prices and advertising all styles of line and French-made mounts at exceptionally low prices ( The London Portrait Society : Illustrated Catalogue of their foremost exhibition, New Burlington Galleries, 1928 ). From 1937, if not before, the two brothers traded independently. The development of the two businesses is traced in draft here .
John Tanous: The mental picture framing occupation was continued by the younger brother, John, who set up a workshop in Ives St ( Isaacson, fig.2, see Sources below ). presumably as function of this action, the Period Framing Co Ltd, of which John Tanous was Director and Chairman, was wound up voluntarily at a meet at 23 Ives St in 1937 ( London Gazette 6 August 1937 ).

In April 1940 John Tanous failed to get the Ministry of Information contract for framing works by official war artists, the abridge going to Alfred Stiles & Sons ( qv ) ( simon 1996 p.135 ). Sensing that business would dry up during the war, Tanous converted his shop at 116 Draycott Avenue into an artistic café, temporarily moving the much reduced frame business upstairs. John Tanous died in 1972 ( The Times 26 September 1972 ). The business diagnose is hush used by John Tanous Ltd, 115 Harwood Road, Fulham, but since 2006 word picture ensnare has ceased to be one of its activities .
Joseph Tanous: Joseph Tanous and his wife Marie-Rose Flouriot, besides found spell Flouriet or Fleuriot, had five children, as Jenny Isaacson has traced in a holocene history of the business, to which this history is indebted .
All five children were involved in the business at some time. The eldest, Ronald Louis ( ‘ Ronnie ’ ) ( 1915-87 ), initially worked with his uncle, John, before setting up his own business as a visualize framemaker after World War Two, operating from a number of workshops in London. Ronald ’ s son, Derek ( b.1955 ), joined Roy Frandsen ( see below ) in 1973, taking over the occupation in 2001 and renaming it Tanous Fine Art Frames Ltd in 2008 and trading from 7 Lillie Yard, Fulham .
Of the three daughters, the eldest, Joan ( b.1919 ), became an accomplished hatmaker. Marcelle ( b.1920 ) married Roy Frandsen ( d.2001 ). From 1945 they worked with her father, Joseph, in a studio in Cavaye Place, Chelsea. On his death in 1948, leaving effects worth alone £200, they took on the business, renaming it as Roy Frandsen. The youngest daughter, Elizabeth ( ‘ Bette ’ ) ( b.1924 ), managed her uncle, John ’ sulfur business for 29 years until her retirement in 1989. The younger son, Louis ( 1929-63 ), went into business in 1960 with his uncle, John, as J. & L. Tanous, a frame-making commercial enterprise which was initially run individually from John Tanous Ltd .
Framing work: The Tanous brothers reframed more than 200 pictures for the exhibition arranged by the Redfern Gallery of the complete works of Christopher Wood at the New Burlington Galleries in March 1938, using ‘ a standard form Louis XIV design decappé …specially toned for each picture ’, according to a magazine article ( ‘The English Frame Acquires Tone ‘, nameless cartridge holder, c.1938 ) ; this promotion article described the taste for ‘decappé frames light and calcareous in spirit ‘, broadly imported from Holland and France until the Tanous brothers developed an specially hard composition and a range of mouldings, each frame individually toned .
The business is said to have worked for Pietro Annigoni, Jacob Epstein, Augustus John, Sir Gerald Kelly, Sir John Lavery and Vivien Pitchforth, among others ( information from Frank Wenstrum 11 June 1996, see besides Sources below ). Tanous framed William Nicholson ’ sulfur Study for Lord and Lady Strafford in their Library, 1940 ( Christie ’ s 21 March 1996 lot 95 ) and reframed Lord Leighton ’ randomness Flaming June for the dealer Jeremy Maas in about 1963 ( Royal Academy Magazine, no.49, Winter 1995, p.38 ). Ronnie Tanous framed works for Alfred Munnings, now hanging in the Munnings Art Museum, Dedham ( information from Jenny Isaacson ) .
In 1951, John Tanous Art Galleries advertised as ‘ The House of Tanous. Patronised by Royalty. Tanous Frames have been selected by the Council of Industrial Design… ’ ( The Artist, vol.41, April 1951, p.ii ). In particular the ad set out six framing services : ( 1 ) ‘ Finest reproductions in hand-carved plastic of English, Dutch, french and italian time period frames… finished in Water laid leaf aureate, and very gold crushed powder… ’, ( 2 ) ‘ The “ John Tanous-All wood ” antique inning ( Patent applied for… ) … made entirely of woodwind, having the appearance of strip honest-to-god carved pine and oak frames, costing a quarter of the price of hand-carved frames ’, ( 3 ) ‘ Best quality reproduction plaster frames, finished in buff bronze…. ’, ( 4 ) ‘ A wide range of patterns of Primatives, Walnut veneer and gold, Tortoiseshell, italian Silver and Renaissance styles, Velvet and Walnut and Antique cracked venetian gilt ’, ( 5 ) To the Trade. ‘ A special line of the cheapest and best hand-made frames nowadays being manufactured. Louis XIV, and similar styles from 10/- per foot, in coloring material and gold or decape finishes ’, ( 6 ) To Artists. ‘ …a singular framing serve compiled from a huge malcolm stock of previous menstruation frames, modernised and regilded in french tinge and aureate and decape finish… ’. additionally, reference book is made in the ad to John Tanous ’ s niece, Marcelle Tanous, reproduction mirrors, wall lights, etc at 309 Fulham Road and his brother, George Tanous, upholstery, curtains, furniture etc at 262 Fulham Road .
Lillian Browse, the principal, once commented on the boastfully numbers of plaster and whitish frames that Tanous produced ( conversation with Jacob Simon, 3 June 1996 ) .
Sources : William Raymond, ‘ Montmartre in Chelsea has been his target ’, West London Press 18 May 1962 ( profile and consultation with John Tanous ) ; Jenny Isaacson, History of Tanous, Picture Framemakers, typescript, 2009 ( including a technical foul section on the Tanous framemaking summons ) ; Derek Tanous, ‘ Running in the kin ’, Art Business Today, June 2010, p.66 ( interview with Derek Tanous ). For abbreviations, see Resources and bibliography .
*Frederick Tate, 18 Percy St, Bedford Square, London W by 1844-1920. Carvers and gilders, word picture restorers .
Frederick Thomas Tate ( 1811-83 ) and his son Frederick Kent Tate ( 1847-1922 ) can be traced through censuses, always at 18 Percy St : in 1851 the father, a cutter and gilder, age 40, and the son, age 4, in 1861 untraced, in 1871 the don a master and the son employed by his father, in 1881 both forefather and son gilders and framemakers, in 1891 untraced, and in 1901 and 1911 entirely the son, recorded as a picture framemaker. The son died in 1922, leaving effects worth £1680, with administration granted to Frederick Harrison Tate ( 1888-1953 ), principal, presumably his own son .
The father ’ mho trade label gives 1838 as the class the business was established, advertising as ‘Practical Gilder and Frame Maker, Picture Restorer and Dealer in Works of Art… Manufacturer of Gilt Consoles, Looking Glasses, Window Cornices and Ornamental Designs generally for Decorative purposes ; Old Gilt Work Cleaned or Re-gilt in superior manner ‘ ( National Portrait Gallery, label from Thomas Woolner ‘s plaster medallion, William Gifford Palgrave, 1864 ) .
It was presumably the younger Tate, ‘ practical gilder, movie clean, etc ’, who was the writer of the Handbook for the Amateur, containing virtual hints on the proper keeping and preservation of oil paintings, published in 1879 ; in his advertisements for this publication he offered a picture restoration avail ( The Times 25 September 1880 ). In 1913, he advertised as The Tate Gallery of Fine Art, offering ‘Picture Restoration and Artistic Framing ‘ ( The class ’ s Art 1913 ) and it was these services that he promoted through an ad postcard showing him standing outside his shopfront ( reproduction kindly provided by Nick Clark, 2011 ) .
Updated September 2015
H.W. Taylor & Co 1896-1934. At ‘ The Old Golden Palette ’, 61 Queen ’ south Road, Bayswater, London ( ’ 10 doors from Queen ’ s Road station ’ ) 1896-1927, 36 spring St, Paddington, W2 1928-1934. visualize frame designers and makers .
Harry Walter Taylor ( 1864-1934 ) was a partner in the business of Gething & Taylor ( qv ), before setting up his own company in 1896. He was born in Southampton in 1864 but can be found in Edgbaston in the 1881 census, described as an artist, long time 16, the son of Henry T. Taylor, a metallic agentive role. In 1901 in the census he was living in Acton, a picture ensnare moulding manufacturer. Harry Walter Taylor ( 1864-1934 ) of 36 Spring St, Paddington, died at the long time of 70 in 1934 ( London Gazette 26 March 1935 ), leaving effects deserving £380 .
In The Year ’ s Art in 1899, as late of 102 Charing Cross Road, Taylor set out his services, ‘ Manufacturers of Highest-class Frames for Pictures, Prints, Mirrors, Medallions, Plaques, and so forth, in Every Style and Material… Special Designs carried out ’, besides offering to clean and remount old prints and clean, reline and restore pictures. In The Studio the same class Taylor advertised his occupation as ‘ Picture Frame Fashioners, Designers, Carvers & Modellers ’ ( The Studio, vol.16, 15 February 1899, p.xx ). By 1900, he was trading as H.W. Taylor & Co from premises in Bayswater described as ‘ The Old Golden Palette ’ .
By 1928, the business had moved from Bayswater to Paddington, where it advertised as ‘ Makers of Picture Frames in Carved Wood or Hand-Modelled Gesso, from our own Patterns or Worked to Artist ’ s Designs. All Styles, Old or New ’ ( Journal of the Royal Society of Arts, vol.80, 1 April 1932, p.ii ) .
Framing work: In an article on picture framing from the artist ‘s point of view, Byam Shaw explained that he used Taylor for his less expensive frames, while going to May for ‘old French frames ’, presumably C.M. May ( qv ) ( Fine Art Trade Journal, vol.3, 1908, information from Jeremy Adamson ). The tabernacle frame on Marianne Stokes ’ s small altar paint, The Infant St John, by 1900 ?, has H.W. Taylor & Co ’ sulfur pronounce ( Christie ’ s South Kensington 13 March 2013 lot 129 ) .
H.W. Taylor & Co worked for a number of artists with cornish associations. The clientele made the skeleton for Frank Bramley ‘s Among the Roses, 1911, and Elizabeth Forbes ‘s Blackberry Gathering, exh.1912 ( both Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, see Morris 1996 pp.41, 143 ). Lamorna Birch employed Taylor as his London agentive role and framer, 1904-18 and possibly for longer, frequently leaving decisions on frame, mounting and display to him and to his watercolour framer, John H. Steer ( qv ). The results could be disappoint, as on the juncture of Birch ’ s one-man testify at the Fine Art Society in 1918 when he had to work with Taylor for closely 10 hours at a reach helping to reframe the exhibition immediately before it opened to make it presentable ( Austin Wormleighton, A Painter Laureate : Lamorna Birch and his encircle, 1995, pp.87, 91, 93, 145, information from James Church, June 2012 ) .
taylor was used for framing, c.1905-10, by the american artist, W. Elmer Schofield ( 1865-1944 ), who painted a great consider in Cornwall ( data from James Church, June 2012 ), including for The Landing Stage, Boulogne, 1908-9, with damaged label : “ The Old Golden Palette ” / H.W.TAYLOR & Co./ …/ PICTURE FRAME FASHIONERS, / … ( Cincinnati Art Museum, information from James Church, August 2014 ). For Taylor ’ s symmetry with Schofield from 1905, including a revealing letter with eight frame profiles, see James Church ’ second article, The Artist and the Framemaker : W. Elmer Schofield and H.W. Taylor, on the Frame Blog, 8 July, 2015 .
For abbreviations, see Resources and bibliography .
*John Taylor 1826-1849, John Taylor & Son 1850-1898, John Taylor & Son (Edinburgh) Ltd 1899-1940. At 100 Rose St, Edinburgh 1826-1827, West Thistle St ( besides called southwest Thistle Lane ) 1828-1835, 55 George St 1835-1850, 54 George St ( under the Assembly Rooms ) 1841-1850, 109 Princes St 1851-1911 or subsequently, 110 Princes St 1870-1940. Wright, then picture framemakers, printsellers, auctioneers, late furniture makers and upholsterers .
See british artists ‘ suppliers on the National Portrait Gallery web site .
Updated September 2014
Zacharie Taylor,
near Smithfield, London 1631/2, Covent Garden ( ? ) 1646. Joiner and carver .
Zacharie Taylor ( active 1631, d.1652 ) was a leading cutter in the reign of King Charles I, for whom he made numerous frames, many of which were painted and gilded by John de Critz ( qv ) or Matthew Goodricke ( qv ). He is possibly the Zacharie Taylour who married Elianor Fisher at St Gregory by St Paul in 1625 .
George Vertue noted from a Works Office Book for 1631/2 that Taylor lived near Smithfield ( Vertue vol.4, p.26 ) but his reference point to ‘ Zachary Taylor Surveyor Temp. K. Charles 2d a ticket half length picture painted with a compass. & a square in his hands ’, noted in margin as painted by Fuller, is puzzling ( Vertue vol.1, p.98, quoting british Library, Add. MS 23069 f.15r ). There was a Zachary taylor in Covent Garden in 1646, according to rate books .
In his will, made 9 July 1650 and proved 4 February 1652, Zacharie Taylor, joiner of London, made his widow daughter, Elizabeth Taylor, besides Colton, his executrix and residuary legatee, requesting that he be buried in or near the grave of Ellen, his first base wife, in the parish church of St Sepulchre. He made specific bequests as follows : to his erstwhile handmaid Henry Phillips ‘ Dittenlyns Book of Architecture ’ ( presumably Wendel Dietterlin ’ s Architectura, 1598 ), to his recently servant Richard Cleare ( d.1681 ) his ‘ models ’, instruments and tools of his craft of carving, to his nephew Barnard Lipscombe ( ? ) ( d.1681 ), carpenter, all his books and ‘ draughts of Architecture ’ ( PCC wills ). The particular mention to Dietterlin is intriguing, far documenting the craftsmen who had access to his Architectura in Britain ( see Anthony Wells-Cole, Art and decoration in Elizabethan and Jacobean England : The charm of continental prints, 1558-1625, 1997, pp.27-30, for Dietterlin ’ s charm ). Henry Phillips went on to become Sculptor to the Crown and was followed or deputised by his nephew, William Emmett ( qv ) .
Framing work: According to notes made by George Vertue, ‘ Zachary Taylor cutter ’ worked at Somerset House, 1632-7, receiving payments from the master of the Works in 1632, undertaking knead in the Queen ’ second Closet in 1635 and carving picture frames at 2s.2d a foot for the Cross Gallery in 1637 ( Vertue vol.2, p.91, from a manuscript belonging to Peter Le Neve ; Vertue vol.1, p.98, from an account book ). Taylor carved ‘ tenn great painting frames ’ for the Cross Gallery ( National Archives, E 351/3270, f.10 ) and besides a ‘ great picture frame for the old disengage roome ’, consisting of 33 feet at a cost of 4d a foot ( E 351/3271 ). taylor worked at Whitehall in 1631/2, carving a large photograph frame for £9.18s ( National Archives, E351/3265 ) and Greenwich in 1639/40 producing ten pedestals for marble statues, with bulls heads, festoons, fruits, leaves and flowers at £3 each ( George H. Chettle, The Queen ’ mho House, Greenwich, London Survey Committee, 14th monograph, 1937, p.104 ) .
elsewhere, Taylor agreed with Nicholas Stone in August 1639 to provide a mental picture frame for the Countess of Middlesex ’ s word picture by Van Dyck for £6 which Matthew Goodricke was to colour and gild for a further £6 ( Kent History and Library Centre, U269 A462/5, from notes made by the late Gervase Jackson-Stops and by Edward Town ) .
Vertue besides records that Taylor was carver at Wilton House, where Edward Pearce ( qv ) and Matthew Goodricke were painters ( Vertue vol.2, p.59 ). taylor worked at Northumberland House in the 1640s, producing elaborate carved decoration for the stairway and for some of the principal rooms in the south range ( Jeremy Wood, ‘ The Architectural Patronage of Algernon Percy, 10th Earl of Northumberland ’, in John Bold and Edward Chaney ( eds ), english Architecture Public and Private : Essays for Kerry Downes, 1993, pp.62, 66-8 ) .
For abbreviations, see Resources and bibliography .
*Thomas Temple by 1795-1799, Brookes & Temple by 1801-1808, Temple & Son 1809-1839. At Wardour St, Soho, London 1795, 105 Warden ( Wardour ? ) St, Soho 1799, 28Coventry St by 1801-1814, Clipstone St, Fitzroy Square 1820-1822, 50 Great Titchfield St, Fitzroy Square 1811-1839. Carvers and gilders, picture framemakers ( besides stationers as Brookes & Temple ) .
Thomas Temple ( c.1760-1833 ), a outstanding framemaker in the Regency period, held an appointment to the Duke of York. He and his son, Thomas Maxfield Temple ( 1799-1865 ), worked for versatile collectors and country house owners in the 1810s, 1820s and 1830s .
In 1795 Thomas Temple, Wardour St, was salute as secretary at a meet of fifteen consumers and manufacturers of leaf aureate which resolved to resist an attempt by journeymen goldbeaters to increase their labor charges ( The Times 22 December 1795 ). In about 1801, Temple went into partnership with Henry Brookes ( qv ), a stationer at 28 Coventry St, until September 1808 when the partnership was dissolved ( London Gazette 27 September 1808 ). temple thereafter traded independently from 50 Great Titchfield St, describing himself as a sculptor, gilder and word picture framemaker, ‘removed from Coventry Street ‘. He was besides occasionally listed as a stationer. His barter label as Temple & Son described the business as ‘ Carvers, Gilders & Picture Frame Makers, by Appointment to His Royal Highness the Duke of York ’ ( case reproduced in A Hang of English Frames, Arnold Wiggins & Sons, 1996 ) .
Like many framemakers, Temple used the specialist composition ornament godhead, Thomas Jackson ( qv ), for framing work in 1812. Jackson ’ s son, George Jackson ( qv ), besides a musical composition ornament maker, apparently used some of Temple ’ s own designs in supplying decoration to other makers so that terms like ‘ Temples corners & centres ’, ‘ Temples leaf ’, ‘ Temples water flick ‘, ‘ Temples shells & husk ’ and ‘ Temples bands ’, appear about throughout Jackson ’ s account bible, 1812-7 ( V & A Archive of Art and Design, AAD/2012/1/2/1 ). very like descriptions, such as ‘Temples bands & middles ’ appear in the account books of another leading framemaker, John Smith ( qv ) from 1812, suggesting that Temple was among the design sources used by Smith for composition ornaments for his movie frames, possibly through a subcontract supplier. It is besides worth noting that Smith cleaned a number of pictures for Temple, 1818-20, a farther indication of how close different businesses worked together ( V & A National Art Library, 86.CC.1, Smith account reserve, vol.1, pp.565, 759, 811 ) .
In 1825, Temple attended a meet of more than fifty dollar bill master carvers and gilders who resolved to resist the demands of journeymen for an increase in wages ( The Times 30 June 1825 ). At his death at the old age of 73 in 1833, he was living at 8 Frederick Place, Hampstead Road, referring in his will to his sons, Henry James Temple and Thomas Maxfield Temple .
Henry James Temple ( b.1814 ) does not appear to have played a separate in the business. His older brother, Thomas Maxfield Temple ( 1799-1865 ), was made bankrupt in 1839, when James Charles Guillet ( qv ) of Silver St, Kensington Gravel Pits, was appointed as his assignee ( The Times 17 October 1839, 12 February 1840 ) ; Temple ’ s stock-in-trade was advertised for sale on his premises early on the watch year ( The Times 10 January 1840 ). Like his father before him, the younger Temple had been a customer of the musical composition decoration maker, George Jackson & Sons ( qv ), 1836-9 ( see Jackson explanation book, V & A Archive of Art and Design, AAD/2012/1/2/3 ). Some of his commercial enterprise as a framemaker seems to have passed to Robert Thick ( qv ). He died in Camberwell in 1865 .
Framing work: For Thomas Temple ‘s early framing knead for the artist, Henry Edridge, see Henry Brookes. Thomas Temple was paid by John Soane in April 1798 for three frames for the exhibition, presumably the Royal Academy ’ south, at £2.8s.9d ; that class Soane exhibited three drawings, Entrance to Hyde Park, The hall at Tyringham and The intend sign of the zodiac of David Scott Esq ( Sir John Soane ’ s Museum Archive, journal no.4, Soane ’ s report, 9 April 1798 ; Royal Academy, exh.cat., 1798 ) .
Thomas Temple, and his son Thomas Maxfield Temple, appear to have had links with William and John Seguier, who were advisers to many collectors at the time, and it would seem that the Seguiers brought the Temples considerable business. For model, there are several pictures with the Temple label in the Daniel Mesman bequest to the Fitzwilliam Museum in 1834, a bequest which John Seguier was charged with ensnare, hanging and arranging ; these pictures include Lorenzo Pasinelli ’ s A Sibyl, and Albert Klomp ’ s Cattle in a Landscape ( see The dutch joining : The establish of the Fitzwilliam Museum, exh.cat., Fitzwilliam Museum, 1988, p.6 ). Both William and John Seguier were advisers to the Duke of Wellington ( Jervis 1982 p.18 ), among whose papers there are respective bills and letters showing that up to his bankruptcy in 1839 Temple was the Duke ’ s main framemaker ; there are a few frames at Apsley House with the Temple label, including the massive French-style frame for the full-length, Queen Mary Tudor, after Antonio Moro ( repr. Jervis 1982 p.51 ), made following agreement between the Duke and his architect, Benjamin Dean Wyatt, in 1829 .
Thomas Temple & Son may be the visualize framer working for the Duke of Devonshire, documented in the Chatsworth furnish accounts, 1820-34 ( DEFM ). The occupation framed pictures for respective other collectors including regilding two frames for John Howard, 15th Earl of Suffolk, Ferdinand Bol ’ s The Falconer and a copy of Paul van Somer ’ s Countess of Berkshire, both labelled Temple & Son ( coll. english inheritance, see The Suffolk Collection : catalog of Paintings, 1974, no 7, 48 ). Temple charged the Duke of Portland £47.13s for cultivate on video frames in 1832-3 ( University of Nottingham extra collections, Pw H 2600, Portland collection ) .
‘ Mr Temple, Carver and Gilder ’, presumably Thomas Maxfield Temple, undertake work furnishing the state of matter apartments at Windsor Castle in the former 1830s, receiving staged payments totalling £2900, according to warrants issued between 11 April 1837 and 2 April 1839 ( National Archives, LC 1/1, letters 113, 116-8 ) .
For abbreviations, see Resources and bibliography .
Updated March 2014
Robert Thick , 35 Clipstone St, Fitzroy Square, London 1839-1854. Carver and gilder, picture framemaker and refinisher, previously a grocer.

Robert Thick ( 1798-1869 ) was active as a framemaker in the 1840s and early 1850s, with a distinguish number of clients. He appears to have been christened at St Marylebone in 1798, the son of Robert and Catherine Thick. He married Mary Ann Wade in 1849 at St Marylebone, when he was described as the son of Robert Thick, a dead person salesman. He died in the Kingston district in 1869, old age 70, leaving effects under £5000, with his will proved by his widow, Mary Ann Thick, and another.

Thick ’ s early years are dark. His father was recorded at 35 Clipstone St from 1800 onwards in land tax records and is probably the potato merchant found in a London directory in 1835, and the grocer in 1836-9. The son worked as a framemaker from 1839 to 1854. He was recorded in the 1851 and 1861 censuses living at Ham in Surrey, in 1851 as a passkey gilder employing two men, in 1861 as a owner of houses .
Thick ’ s early years are obscure but by 1835 he or possibly his father was trading as a potato merchant and was listed in London directories as a grocer, 1836-9. He worked as a framemaker from 1839 to 1854. He was recorded in the 1851 and 1861 censuses living at Ham in Surrey, in 1851 as a dominate gilder employing two men, in 1861 as a owner of houses .
In January 1854 Thick transferred his commercial enterprise to Henry Critchfield ( qv ), according to Francis Draper ( qv ), who finally succeeded to the Critchfield clientele. Critchfield told George Scharf, Director of the National Portrait Gallery, that ‘Thick was ruined by excess of shape at Windsor Castle. Henderson, previously employed at Windsor Castle, not being able to gain requital in fourth dimension, cut his throat in despair ‘ ( simon 1996 p.133 ) .
Framing work: A great cope can be learnt from Thick ‘s frame report books ( solicitation Duke of Wellington, see Jervis 1982 p.18 ), including his practice of giving Seguier, agent to respective collectors, a small payment for occupation introduced. here, the focus is on the Duke of Wellington, Sir Robert Peel and the National Gallery, followed by a compendious list of some early significant customers. Thick replaced Thomas Temple ( qv ) as framemaker for the Duke of Wellington ( Jervis 1982 p.18 ), making frames for old masters and hanging pictures from 1841 to 1852. The earliest entry in his account book is for a whole length frame for a portrait of Marquess of Anglesey at £8.8s on 9 April 1841. He made more than 30 frames for the Duke over the following ten-spot years .
Thick worked for National Gallery, 1840-54, making a few raw frames and diverse video tablets, but by and large gilt, repairing, extending, dusting and cleaning existing frames, and pack and hanging pictures. He made a inning for James Ward ’ s Council of Horses for £5.10s in 1848 ( destroyed ; once Tate Gallery ), a reddish brown case lined with velvet for Jan van Eyck ’ s A man in a Turban for £5.5s in 1851 ( National Gallery ) and aureate frames for Gilbert Stuart ’ s Benjamin West ( Tate ) and Zurbaran ’ s St Francis in Meditation ( National Gallery ) for £3 and £9.10s respectively in 1853 .
Thick besides worked for one of the most crucial collectors and patrons of the time period, Sir Robert Peel, from 1841 until 1850, making frames and cases, hanging pictures and making repairs ( simon 1996 p.170 ). many of his frames for Peel were in the Lawrence manner, including those for Frederick Richard Say ’ s Earl of Ellenborough, c.1846, and Duke of Newcastle, 1848 ( National Portrait Gallery, the erstwhile repr. simon 1996 p.116 ) .
Thick undertook a restrict amount of work for Ford Madox Brown and rather more extensive work for F.R. Say but otherwise made few frames for artists. It was possibly through Peel that Say came to use Thick for a lot of his picture frame, 1848-51, as is apparent from Thick ’ s order book, where two of Say ’ s Royal Academy exhibits can be identified including Miss Beechey, a 6½ ins skeleton ordered July 1849 and the Archbishop of York, a 7½ ins frame ordered February 1850. The latter is one of respective frames marked in the order book, ‘ Ryan ’, possibly the name of a craftsman or conceivably an indication that the fabrication of the frame was subcontracted to James Ryan ( qv ) .
Among other clients, possibly the most noteworthy were Sir Thomas Baring, the Earl of Burlington, the british Museum, the Duke of Cambridge, the Marquess Camden, the Earl of Carlisle, Lord Crewe, the Earl of Dartmouth, Earl De la Warr, the Dilettante Society, Prince Esterhazy, Sir Augustus Foster, Thomas Frewin, Henry Thomas Hope, Philip Henry Howard, the Earl of Liverpool, the Earl and Countess of Macclesfield, the Earl of Malmesbury, J. Mitchell, Lord Palmerston, Granville Penn, Samuel Rogers, the Royal Collection at Buckingham Place, Hampton Court and St James ‘s Palace, William and John Seguier, the Duke of Somerset, Charles Standish, Lady Stratheden, Watson Taylor, J. Tollemache, Harcourt Vernon, the Earl of Wemyss and Sir Richard Westmacott. He invoiced John Abel Smith for movie frames, 1845-6 ( West Sussex Record Office, ADD MSS/22,518 ) .
Sources : Robert Thick account and holy order books, kindly made available in 1995 by the late Duke of Wellington, thanks to his archivist, Georgina Stonor. For abbreviations, see Resources and bibliography .
John Thirtle, Magdalen St, Norwich by 1808-1839. Landscape cougar, miniature painter, drawing master, late sculptor and gilder, looking methamphetamine and photograph framemaker, printseller .
The Norwich landscape painter, John Thirtle ( 1777-1839 ), a talented watercolorist, was the son of John Thirtle, a cobbler. He was apprenticed to the Norwich cutter and gilder, Benjamin Jagger, in 1790 ( Stabler 2006 p.225 ). He exhibited with the Norwich Society from 1805, but rarely showed his work after a discrepancy in 1816. To make ends meet, he besides acted as a draw victor and a visualize framemaker. His deal label from Magdalen St takes four forms, possibly the earliest describing him as ‘Thirtle, MINIATURE PAINTER, & Drawing Master ’, within an egg-shaped, offering to frame and glaze pictures and prints, while the most elaborate, stylistically dating to the 1830s, calls him a ‘ CARVER, GILDER, PICTURE FRAME AND LOOKING GLASS Manufacturer, WHOLESALE AND RETAIL ’ ( repr. Stabler 2006 p.85 ). His will, very inadequate and simpleton, made 31 July 1838 and proved 3 December 1839, describes himself as a carver and gilder. His business was then taken over by William Boswell ( qv ).

It has been suggested that much of Thirtle ’ second ferment as a framemaker may have come through his fellow Norwich School artists, such as Joseph Clover, who used Thirtle ’ s address when exhibiting in 1816 and 1817 and who is documented as using his services between 1825 and 1838, James Stark and George Vincent. The Norwich Castle Museum contains labelled Thirtle frames on pictures by J.S. Cotman, J.B. Crome, Robert Dixon, Thomas Lound, James Sillett, Joseph Stannard and George Vincent ( Moore 1985 p.78 ) ; examples include Vincent ‘s View in Glen Sharrah, 1823, and Trowse Meadows, near Norwich, 1828 ( Moore 1985 p.46 ) .
Sources : Marjorie Allthorpe-Guyton, John Thirtle 1777-1839, exh.cat., Norwich Castle Museum, 1977 ; John Stabler, Norfolk Furniture Makers 1700-1840, Regional Furniture Society, 2006. For abbreviations, see Resources and bibliography .
Updated March 2014, September 2018
William Thomas
1822-1864, Mrs Ann Thomas 1864-1873, Robert Thomas 1874-1884. At 17 Charlton St, London 1822-1824, 39 London St, Fitzroy Square 1823-1851, 29 Berners St 1851-1865, 51 Wigmore St 1865-1869, 11 Wigmore St 1869-1872, 60 George St, Portman Square 1873-1884. Carvers and gilders, house and cosmetic painters, wallpaper hangers and decorators, word picture framemakers .
William Thomas ( c.1792-1864 ) undertake framing study for Queen Victoria and for respective go artists. He should not be confused with his about contemporary, the artist William Thomas ( 1788-1861 ? or belated ), who was at 22 Charles St, Middlesex Hospital in 1820 ( information on the artist from Martin Myrone ) .
Thomas used his early skeletal system trade label as a ‘ Carver & Gilder, Glass & Picture Frame Maker ’ at 17 Charlton St, Fitzroy Square, to advertise as successor to ‘ Mr. Goyer ’, but whether Philip or Benjamin Goyer ( qv ) is not clear. Thomas is given in London directory listings at 17 Charlton St ( Robson, 1822 and 1823 ) and at two nearby addresses, 17 Charlotte St ( Pigot, 1822 ; Robson, 1824 ) and 17 London St ( Pigot, 1823 ). It is improbable that he was active at all three addresses. In an earlier edition of this on-line resource, it was assumed that Charlton St was a misconstrue for Charlotte St, but now the change by reversal seems probable, given the being of a Charlton St skeletal system pronounce ( model, individual coll., information from Nigel Prince, October 2013 ). shortly afterwards Thomas can be found trading as a interior designer and gilder, on the attest of another deal label from London St ( DEFM ) .
William Thomas married Ann Cave, a descendant of Edward Cave, owner of the Gentleman ‘s Magazine, at St James Westminster in 1818. In 1825 he attended a confluence of more than fifty overlord carvers and gilders who resolved to resist the demands of journeymen for an increase in wages ( The Times 30 June 1825 ). He was a customer of the specialist composition decorate suppliers, George Jackson & Sons ( qv ), 1840-2 ( see Jackson account ledger, V & A Archive of Art and Design, AAD/2012/1/2/3 ). In the 1851 census he was listed as a carver and gilder, age 58, born Westminster, with many children ; in 1861 his age was given as 65, his wife Ann as 61, with sons William and Thomas and daughter Maria. He died at the age of 71 in 1864 ( The Times 9 February 1864 ), leaving effects worth under £300 .
William Thomas was succeeded in commercial enterprise by his widow, Ann, trade as decorator and gilder, and in change by reversal by his son, Robert Baguley Thomas ( 1829-84 ), initially as gilder and interior designer, and from 1876 besides as a photograph refinisher. Described as a decorator and painting framemaker, he died in 1884 leaving a personal estate of the realm of £198. Another son, the artist William Cave Thomas ( 1820-84 ), exhibited at the Royal Academy from 39 London St in 1843. Both father and son were witnesses to the will of the picture refinisher, William Thane, in 1843. For Thane, see british photograph restorers on this web site .
William Thomas held appointments to Queen Adelaide and the Duchess of Kent. He was made a carver and gilder to Queen Victoria in 1837 ( National Archives, LC 5/243 p.18 ) and held an appointment to the Prince of Wales, the future Edward VII. He worked extensively for the Crown from c.1840. already on his trade label in 1834, he noted his date to Queen Adelaide and described himself as ‘ Carver & Gilder, House and Ornamental Painter, Paper Hanger, Decorator & c… Workmen sent to any separate of the kingdom ’, a description which he continued to use for many years ( simon 1996 p.168 ). His sanction to the Prince of Wales was struck out in 1863, shortly before his death .
Framing work: Thomas supplied a dress of uniform gilded composition frames for the painting Gallery at Buckingham Palace in 1850, initially estimating the sum of £1053 for 185 gilt frames, reduced by versatile deductions to £919 ; an exemplar is Jan Steen ’ s A womanhood at her toilet ( repr. lord 1993 p.172 ). Over the years, the Thomas business supplied numerous frames for pictures in Queen Victoria ’ second solicitation ( Millar 1992, see index p.357 ; see besides Joy 1969 p.684 ). These included works by Sir Edwin Landseer ( 1840-9 ; bring dates are given, quite than frame dates ), John Lucas ( 1842 ), Sir George Hayter ( after ) ( 1842 ), Sir Francis Grant ( 1843 ), John Frederick Herring ( 1845-6 ), Charles Lock Eastlake ( 1850 ), Franz Xaver Winterhalter ( 1850, 1853, 1861-2 ), Henrietta Ward ( 1857 ), Emma Gaggiotti Richards ( 1861 ), Albert Graefle ( 1864 ), Charles Burton Barber ( 1872-81 ), Henry Richard Graves ( 1874 ), Otto Weber ( 1874 ) and Gourlay Steell ( 1876 ). Some of the frames for work by Winterhalter were specially elaborate or involved special travel ( Millar 1992 pp.307, 310, 325 ). There are payments to William Thomas, 1854-65 ( PP 2/6, 4624 to PP 2/91, 8369 ; LC 11/139, see Burlington Magazine, vol.151, 2009, p.828, n.35 ) and to his widow Ann Thomas 1864-9 ( PP2/81, 6732 to PP2/140, 15592 ). For further information, see Whitaker 2012 pp.3-4, 8, 21 .
William Thomas made frames for Sir Francis Grant and, it would seem, Sir George Hayter, both royal sanction holders. Hayter would have come across Thomas in the course of his oeuvre for queen Victoria but whether Thomas worked for him personally remains to be established. Hayter records seeing Thomas about framing the Queen ’ south portrait ( Guildhall Art Gallery ) on 26 January 1838 ( Diary, typescript, National Portrait Gallery Library ). Portraits by Hayter with Thomas ’ s label include Baron Hatherton, 1834, and Thomas Waghorn, by 1847 ( both National Portrait Gallery, the early repr. simon 1996 p.169 ). Thomas ’ s frame for the portrait of Hatherton employs butterfly keys to join the corners, an unusual method acting at the period, besides found on his frame for Francis Grant ’ s J.G. Lockhart ( scots National Portrait Gallery ). other works by Grant framed by William Thomas in assorted styles include 1st Earl Russell, 1853, and 3rd Earl of Lucan, 1855 ( both National Portrait Gallery, the latter repr. simon 1996 p.104 ), John Naylor, 1857 ( Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool ) and, by Robert Thomas, 6th Duke of Richmond ( Goodwood House, information from James Peill, April 2013 ) .
William Thomas ‘s workplace for other clients is not well documented. ‘ W. Thomas ’ supplied picture frames to the 3rd Earl of Egremont, 1823-4 ( West Sussex Record Office, PHA/10610 ). For Chatsworth he was paid £25.8s.6d for a frame for Edwin Landseer ’ randomness Scene in the Olden Time at Bolton Abbey in 1834 ( Devonshire Archives, Chatsworth C/165/C, Chatsworth Household Expences 1834, information from Charles Noble ). From his tag, William Thomas supplied the frame for Andrew Morton ’ south Lord Brougham, c.1836 ? ( scottish National Portrait Gallery, information from Keith Morrison ). much later in 1878 Robert Thomas supplied video frames to the Duke of Portland ( Nottingham University Library, Pw K/4531, Portland collection ) .
Sources : Charles Noble, ‘Fashion in the veranda : The Picture Gallery ‘s changing hang ‘, Apollo, vol.138, 1993, pp.170-5, fig.2. For abbreviations, see Resources and bibliography .
Updated March 2016, March 2018
Alexander Thomson, Head of Calton ( besides listed as Calton Hill ), Edinburgh 1799-1809, 16 York Place 1809-1811, renumbered 1811, 34 York Place 1811-1813, 79 High St ( ‘ near the Fountain Well ’ ) 1814-1824. Carver and gilder, video framemaker .
fiddling is known of Alexander Thomson ( 1773-1832 ) early than his work in framing Henry Raeburn ’ s pictures. He is credibly the ‘ Alexander Thomson Wright ’ who became a Burgess in April 1793. Alexander Thomson, sculptor and gilder of Water of Leith, married Margary Maxwell in 1797 at St Cuthbert Edinburgh. They had seven children baptised in this parish, with Alexander the father always described as a sculptor and gilder : alexander, the first son ( 1798, savoir-faire given as Simons Square ), William ( 1800, Calton ), Margery ( 1802, Calton ), Henry ( 1804, Calton ), John Maxwell ( 1806, Leith Walk ), James ( 1808, Shakespear Square ) and George ( 1810 ). It has been suggested that Alexander Thomson was born in April 1773 in Stockbridge. It seems likely that he was the the serviceman of this name who died in November 1832, described as a sculptor and gilder, long time 60, of Carrubbers Close in St Cuthbert ’ s parish. Thomson ’ s son Henry died in Jedburgh in 1884. much information in this paragraph has been kindly provided by Douglas Thomson, April 2015, January 2018, and by Michael Ward, January 2018 ; see besides ScotlandsPeople web site .
Alexander Thomson should not be confused with an older wright of the same name noted in an earlier edition of this history, who died long time 79 in December 1827, leaving four children by his first marriage, to Ann Crumbie ( daughter of John Crumbie, wright ). One of his sons, James, wear 1786, became a wright at Edinburgh ( as recorded in the drawn-out marriage settlement between Alexander Thomson and his second wife, Isobel Cooper, in 1827 ). There are carvers by the name of Alexander Thomson recorded at two unlike Edinburgh addresses in the mid-1790s, at McDougal ’ mho St, foot of Leith Wynd, 1793-97, and at Bristo St 1794-97. It remains to be ascertained which of the two men described above was the ‘ Alexander Tomson, Carver & Gilder, an imposing rogue ’ who features in Lord Rosebery ’ s cash book in October 1794 as receiving a requital of £24.3s .
Framing work: Alexander Thomson ’ randomness premises at Calton Hill, or ‘ head of Calton ’, were within 400 yards of Raeburn ’ second York Place studio apartment. It was possibly the convenience of dealing with a framemaker within easy scope that contributed to Raeburn ’ s decision to move his business to Thomson in about 1798. It should be noted that there may have been a distant syndicate joining ( information from Michael Ward ) .
Alexander Thomson ’ s list can first be linked with Raeburn ’ randomness in consecutive entries in the report ledger of Hugh Scott of Harden, a Raeburn patron in the 1790s ( National Records of Scotland, GD157/844, Scott of Harden papers ). A payment on 17 April 1799 for picture frames costing £24.1s is followed following day by one to Raeburn himself of £26.5s, or 25 guineas, for a portrayal of Mrs Scott. In 1801 Thomson framed a picture, credibly the ‘ picture of crippled ’ which Raeburn sold to John Brown of Lanfine ( National Library of Scotland, MS 2224, ff.8-9 ). In 1805 Murray Stirling of Abercairny paid Thomson for two three-quarter picture frames at £3.3s each for Raeburn portraits ( National Records of Scotland, GD24/1/627/19, information from Helen Smailes ). In 1806 and 1812 Thomson is documented by receipts as framing other Raeburn portraits ( Houliston 1999 p.64 ). In November 1808 he published Charles Turner ’ s mezzotint of Raeburn ’ s portrait of Alexander Adam, the imprint line describing him as ‘ Carver, Coltenhill ’, and he further advertised the print from 16 York Place the follow year ( David Alexander, Henry Raeburn and his Printmakers, 2006, p.23 ; Edinbugh Evening Courant, 30 December 1809, information from Helen Smailes ) .
But the most intrigue yoke is provided by the Edinburgh directories of the period which show Thomson as working from the lapp address as Raeburn at 16 York Place, renumbered in 1811 as 34 York Place, from 1809-1813. He besides had lodgings in Shakespeare Square from 1808 until 1811. subsequently from 1814 Thomson was listed at 79 High St in the Old Town, ‘ near the Fountain Well ’ according to his deal label, half a mile from Raeburn ’ s studio. An exercise of the pronounce can be found on Thomson ’ s reframing or rectify of David Martin ’ mho Col. William Hunter, reading : ‘ MAKES, CARVES, and GILDS all kinds of LOOKING-GLASSES, PICTURE FRAMES, & c., in the best style and on the lowest terms. N.B. Paintings Cleaned and Repaired ( repr. Houliston 1999 p.67 ) .
In 1822 Thomson wrote from 79 High St to Sir Duncan Campbell of Barcaldine seeking payment of his explanation for a painting human body and box at 11 guineas ( National Records of Scotland, GD170/2744, Campbell of Barcaldine papers ) .
Sources : Houliston 1999 pp.63-4, 77. information kindly provided Helen Smailes. For abbreviations, see Resources and bibliography. *
Updated November 2020
Michael Tijou 1789-1824, ( Michael) Tijou & Son 1823-1828, William Tijou 1828-1833. At Compton St, London 1789-1792, 22 greek St, Soho 1795-1802, 16 greek St 1802-1826, 17 greek St 1819-1832. Carvers and gilders, picture frame and looking glass makers .
There were Huguenot craftsmen by the name of Tijou active in London in the early eighteenth century, notably Jean Tijou, the celebrated ironsmith. By the early nineteenth century, there were respective London families by the name of Tijou, with a number of individuals operating as carvers and gilders, making identifications debatable. One couple, Michael and Sarah, married in 1789 at St George Bloomsbury and had six children between about 1789 and 1798, christened at St Anne Soho ; this Michael was probably the Michael Tijou, woodcarver and gilder in Greek St, Soho, discussed here. The birth of his son Henry has not been traced and he seems to have had further children later in life ( see below ). Another couple, Michael and Elizabeth had five children between 1813 and 1827, christened in Southwark ; this second gear Michael may have been the son of Michael and Sarah Tijou. A third base couple, Thomas and Mary had three children between 1808 and 1811, again christened in Southwark, of whom Francis Tijou, hold 1810, must surely be the cutter of this name working in Lambeth in the mid-19th hundred. There were members of the Tijou family working as carvers and gilders in Southwark, Vauxhall and Lambeth from at least 1811 until 1862 or late .
Michael Tijou ( d.1835/6 ) appears to be the individual recorded in rate books in Compton St, 1789-92. He was surely active by the 1790s, with several noteworthy clients. He took Thomas Clarke as apprentice in 1791. initially he dealt in pictures, until in 1802 when the entire stock of ancient and advanced pictures of ‘ Mr Tijou… who is removed to No. 16, and is leaving off the photograph Business ’, was sold on his premises at 22 greek Street ( The Times 23 September 1802 ). He continued occasionally to offer items for sale on his premises including furniture and portraits ( The Times 2 February 1821 ). According to the Survey of London, it was possibly Michael Tijou who had a raw workshop front inserted at 17 greek St, possibly in 1824 .
Like many framemakers, ‘ Tijou ’ of Greek St, was an casual customer of the specialist composition ornament maker, George Jackson ( qv ), ordering runs of decoration and a slam frame in 1813 and respective cosmetic parts in 1814 ( see Jackson bill ledger, V & A Archive of Art and Design, AAD/2012/1/2/1, pp.57, 142 ) .
William Tijou ( 1798-1838 ) was obviously born in 1798, the son of Michael and Sarah Tijou, and died age 39 in 1838 ( London Dispatch and People ’ s Political and Social Reformer 16 December 1838 ). He was president of a converge in 1825 of more than fifty dollar bill master carvers and gilders, including M. Tijou and Sons, and T. Tijou, who resolved to resist the demands of journeymen for an increase in wages ( The Times 30 June 1825 ). The Tijou business acted as agent for the Birmingham Society of Arts for their exhibition in 1829 ; Tijou would ‘either pack the pictures in the houses of the respective Artists, or remove them into Greek-street for that purpose, as may be most accordant to the Exhibitors themselves ‘ ( Fawcett 1974 p.207 ). A sale of the contents of the house and workshop at 17 greek St was held on 2 August 1832 ( V & A National Art Library, Foster catalogues, not seen, data from Sarah Medlam ) .
In his will, made 15 January 1835 and proved 4 April 1836, Michael Tijou described himself as sculptor and gilder of Vauxhall Bridge Road, and left his estate of the realm in entrust for his many sons and daughters, whom he lists with their dates of parentage between 1818 and 1829 as his natural or reputed children by Sophia Esther Tijou, from Henry in 1818 to Sophia Phyllis in 1829, with a delightful nod to one of his greatest patrons, Sir John Leicester of Tabley Hall, in the baptize of John Thomas Tabley Tijou in 1823. A sale of Michael Tijou ’ south pictures, ‘ collected by him during a long series of years ’ was held in 1836, including solve by Gainsborough, Martin, Morland, Northcote, Turner, Ward and Westall ( The Times 26 March 1836 ) .
Framing work: Michael Tijou supplied picture frames to the 3rd Earl of Egremont, 1799-1806. He and his son, Henry, acted for Sir John Leicester, obviously supervising the opening of Leicester ’ s Gallery of modern british pictures in Mayfair in 1818. As separate of this process, Michael Tijou appears in connection with pictures by Thomas Lawrence in 1817 and Edwin Landseer in 1820 and 1821. In 1824 in an idiosyncratically spelt and familiarly worded letter to Sir John, Tijou referred to his son Henry, who besides wrote to Sir John with information about his frame sour for John Nash the architect on a portrayal of George IV by Sir Thomas Lawrence. Henry Tijou helped organise the sale of pictures which took station following Leicester ’ s death in 1827 but separate of the Leicester collection survived intact and is now shown at Tabley House, Cheshire .
For a time, Tijou acted as Thomas Lawrence ‘s framemaker, as Joseph Farington noted when Lawrence spoke to him about settling an account with Tijou in 1816, and then with Tijou ’ second solicitor the follow January ( Farington, vol.14 pp.4921, 4956 ). Lawrence appears to have continued using or recommending Tijou for some frame oeuvre. His Frederick Duke of York, c.1822 ( Christie ’ s 6 July 2007 bunch 209 ) bears the frame pronounce of M. Tijou & Son from 17 greek St as ‘ Carvers, Gilders, Glass & Picture Frame Manufacturers ’, advertise, ‘ Old Glasses New polished & Silvered. Old Pictures restored. Secondhand Glasses of big Dimensions ’. ‘ Mr Tijou ‘ received a requital of £68.10s.6d from the estate of Thomas Lawrence in 1830 ( V & A National Art Library, MSL/1938/1923 ). For Tijou and Thomas Lawrence, see Lawrence ‘s framemakers on the National Portrait Gallery web site .
Michael Tijou worked for other run artists. John Hoppner refers to him in correspondence with Sir John Leicester in 1806 ( Hall 1962 p.80 ). Joseph Farington quotes him concerning the death of both John Opie in 1807 and George Henry Harlow in 1819, in the latter exemplify as taking charge of his funeral ( Farington, vol.8 p.3002, vol.15 p.5333 ). James Northcote is documented as using ‘Tiyou ‘ to supply photograph frames for his portraits on four occasions between 1806 and 1816. John Linnell used ‘ Tijou ’ to undertake modest employment on one juncture in 1822 ( Fitzwilliam Museum, Linnell report book, MS 20-2000 ) .
Sources : ‘Greek Street Area ‘, Survey of London, vols 33, 34, St Anne Soho, 1966, pp.170-90, available on-line at www.british-history.ac.uk ; West Sussex Record Office, Petworth House Archive, PHA/8024, 8064, 9219, 10619 ; Douglas Hall, ‘The Tabley House Papers ‘, Walpole Society, vol.38, 1962, pp.81, 83, 89, 109-10 ; Peter Cannon-Brookes, Tabley House, guidebook, 1991, p.8 ; Jacob Simon, ‘The Account Book of James Northcote ‘, Walpole Society, vol.58, 1996, p.25. For abbreviations, see Resources and bibliography .
Robert Toothaker ( d.1735 ), see Charles Wharton
John Tootle, see George Morant
*John Tousey , The Golden Head, Wardour St, London by 1749-1750 or former, Sarah Touzey, The Golden Head, Bow St, Bloomsbury 1755, John Tousey, The Golden Head, Bow St by 1763-1781. Carvers and gilders .
Our understanding of this Huguenot family of carvers is incomplete and promote research is required. John and Elizabeth Tousey had two sons by the name of John Tousey, the beginning christened at St Anne Soho in 1712, the second at St Martin-in-the-Fields in 1723. A far individual by the name of John Tousey was christened in 1740 at St Paul Covent Garden, the son of John and Catherine Tousey .
John Tousey, or Touzey, was listed as a cutter in the 1749 Westminster election poll record. He took out insurance with the Sun Fire Office at the Golden Head, face-to-face Broad St in Wardour St in November 1750. John Tousey ’ south brother, Jacob, took Gideon Saint ( qv ) as apprentice in September 1743 ( DEFM ). It is besides worth noting that a ‘ John Tousey ’ became a penis of the Royal Society of Musicians in 1740 .
Sarah Touzey, possibly his wife or widow, took out indemnity from the Golden Head in Bow St in 1755. together with her son, she took over an apprentice from a fellow Huguenot, James Lewis Guillet ( qv ), John Lemaitre, for a far two years in 1758. She may possibly be Sarah Le Touzey who died in 1762 leaving a will dated 18 September and proved 8 November 1762 in which her sons, Jacob and John Le Touzey were mentioned. Jacob Touzey described his brother John Touzey as a carpenter and gilder, leaving everything to him, including his trophy money in his will, made 8 April and proved 11 July 1764, made from one of his stateliness ’ second ships in Jamaica .
It may be that the John Touzey who took out indemnity from Sarah Touzey ’ randomness address in 1764 and 1765 was her son. John Tousey married Anchonte Hewer at St George Bloomsbury in May 1762 and had two children, John and Frances, christened at this church in 1764 and 1768 respectively. He took apprentices James Wood for a premium of 5s in 1762, James Scott for £30 in 1764, Thomas Gibbons for 5s in 1765 and James Weale for £5 in 1770 .
Touzey was listed in Bow St in Kent ’ s directory in 1780 as a cabinet maker, upholsterer and dealer in plate glass, and he was recorded as ‘ Towsey ’ in Bow St in a list of furniture makers compiled by the Duchess of Northumberland, c.1776 ( Christopher Gilbert, The Life and Work of Thomas Chippendale, 1978, p.154 ). John Touzey advertised in 1781 that he was retiring from trade, offering his ‘ Remaining Stock and Utensils in Trade, solicitation of valuable Pictures, Prints, Drawings, Professional Designs, & carbon ’, describing himself as ‘ Carver, Upholder, Cabinet-maker, and Dealer in Plate Glass ’ ( Morning Chronicle and London Advertiser 4 April 1781 ) .
‘ Touzey ’ made frames and a pier field glass for Edward Knight, Kidderminster, 1765-9 ( penny 1986 p.813 ). He worked on some 36 paintings for Lord Coventry, 1766-8, at a cost of £43. Descriptions such as ‘Touzets house of cards ‘ appear in the account books of John Smith ( qv ) from 1812, if not referring to John Tousey, then leaving open the possibility that there was another craftsman of this name at sour in the early nineteenth hundred who was used by Smith for composing ornaments for his photograph inning. There was a Henry Tousey, woodcarver and gilder at 10 Silver St, Golden Square, who took out indemnity in 1781 .
not necessarily the like individual as discussed above, John Tousey, Little Titchfield St, St Marylebone, was made bankrupt in 1761 ( London Gazette 22 September 1761 ), and is possibly to be identified with John Le Tousey, woodcarver and gilder, former of the parish of St Marylebone, referred to two months later as bankrupt ( London Gazette 21 November 1761 ). Further, it should be noted that an individual by the name Francis Le Fousey, of Jersey, possibly a mistranscription by the original salesclerk for Le Tousey, was apprenticed to Jacob Gosset in 1726 .
Sources : London Metropolitan Archives, Sun Fire Office policy registers, 90/123691, 153/207997, 296/449758 ( Henry Tousey ) ; Betty Matthews, ‘ Handel and the Royal Society of Musicians, Musical Times, vol.125, 1984, pp.79-82 ; Joan Lane, ‘ The furniture at Croome Court ’, Apollo, vol.145, January 1997, pp.28-9. For abbreviations, see Resources and bibliography .
*Robert Tull, St James ’ mho, Westminster, London 1753-1758, Dufour ’ second Court, Broad St, Soho 1756. Carver and gilder .
Robert Samuel Tull ( c.1731-1758 ) was apprenticed to the well-known Huguenot carver and gilder, Jacob Gosset ( qv ), for the considerable premium of £42 in 1745. This would suggest that he was born in about 1731 given that most apprentices were bound at the historic period of fourteen. If the apprenticeship ran for seven years, as was normally the casing, then Tull will have completed his discipline in 1752. Tull ’ s account book in the National Portrait Gallery provides insights into his military position as a minor woodcarver and gilder in Soho in mid-18th hundred London. It covers the years from 1753 until his end in 1758. His next door neighbor on one side was the well-known sculptor, Sefferin Alken ( qv ), as is discernible from listings in the Poor Rate books, and two along on the other side was George Pow, a craftsman who features regularly in his account book. For further information, including a transcript of the report ledger, see ‘ Robert Tull : georgian movie framemaker and jobbing craftsman ’ ( forthcoming on the National Portrait Gallery web site ) .
Tull fell ailment and the last introduction in his hand in the account bible was made on 27 December 1757. He signed his will on 7 January and was dead by 25 February 1758 when his wife was granted the government of his estate. In his will Tull made small bequests to his mother, Ann, and his three spinner sisters Ann, Barbara and Dorothy but left the residue of his estate to his wife Charlotte. As his executors, Tull named both his wife and his ‘ good friend ’ George Hobbs, who took over Tull ’ south premises in Dufour ’ second Court, and is presumably the Mr Hobbs whose business with Tull is recorded in the account ledger .
Tull ’ s account book gives details of the work he executed as a sub-contractor for neighbouring Huguenot framemakers, such as Gosset ( presumably Jacob Gosset, his dominate ), Mr Cunot, presumably Jean Antoine Cuenot ( qv ) and Mr Pettet, presumably Paul Petit ( qv ). Tull much worked on individual frame of reference components rather than the dispatch product, so that, for model, he charged Gosset 6d for ‘carving the edges of a small frame of reference ‘, 1s for ‘sizing 2 big frames and gould sizing a large across-the-board one ‘, 1s.3d for ‘mending a common frame and packing one up ‘ and 3s.2d for ‘guilding a boastfully ensnare at home ‘. Cuenot and Petit were both charged for carving but not for gilding, Petit paying 12s for ‘carving a 3/4 frame of reference with Shellworke ‘. This sub-contracted work formed a significant part of Tull ’ s business in 1753 and 1754 ( Simon 1996 pp.143, 162-3 ) .
Tull besides worked as a framemaker in his own right, for artists such as the scottish pastel portraitist, Katharine Read, and patrons including Lawrence Dundas and the Earl of Carlisle. His association with the Jacobite engraver, Sir Robert Strange, and with Katharine Read brought him numerous customers from the nobility and the gentry, many of whom were of scottish origin or of Jacobite sympathy. While a lot of this function was for word picture frames, he besides regularly supplied mirror frames and glasses and carried out a range of early carved and aureate work. Ebenezer Tull, ‘ The british Ruysdale ’, an amateurish painter producing landscapes in the style of Gainsborough and Ruisdael, who was a master at the Charity School of St George ’ south, Southwark, may have been another customer as is suggested by a requital from ‘ Mr Tull in the Borough ’ for a bootleg frame at 6s.6d in January 1757 .
Sources : Robert Tull history book ( National Portrait Gallery ). For abbreviations, see Resources and bibliography .
Richard Turley, 21 Crogsland Road, Kentish Town, London 1891-1922. Carver and gilder, looking glass and mental picture framemaker .
Richard Turley ( ? 1858-1929 ? ) appears to be identifiable with Richard George Turley, bear 1858 in the Northampton district, who married in 1883 in the Islington district and died in 1929 in the Pancras district. In the 1881 census, Richard G. Turley was recorded as a gilder, long time 24, living at 80 kentish Town Road, with his older brother, William W. Turley, historic period 28, who was listed as a cutter and gilder employing one homo. Richard Turley appears in the census in 1891 as a movie framemaker, senesce 34, and in 1901 as a gilder and painting clean, senesce 43, in both censuses living at 21 Crogsland Road, but with his birthplace variously given as Pancras and Leeds. Turley offered the extra services of cutting mounts and mounting drawings .
Richard Turley was described as ‘my framemaker ‘ by John Collier in 1898, when arranging for him to frame a portrait of Professor Thomas Henry Huxley for the National Portrait Gallery ( National Portrait Gallery records, RP 1174 ) .
**George Hogarth Turner, 34 Warwick St, Golden Square, London 1865-1868, 1 Princes St, Hanover Square 1869-1872, 43 Davies St, Grosvenor Square 1873-1890, 1 & 2 Thomas St, Grosvenor Square W 1884-1890. Printseller, additionally carver and gilder from 1869 and fine art publisher from 1873 .
George Hogarth Turner ( ? b.1831 ) is possibly the son of William and Ann Turner, give birth 1831 and christened that year at St Mary Marylebone. Later he took the center mention of Hogarth, whether as a good list for trade purposes or to distinguish himself from George Turner, a cutter and gilder in Pimlico. He traded initially as a printseller, adding cutter and gilder to his description in the London deal directory in 1869 when he moved to Princes St, Hanover Square, but within a year he was made bankrupt ( London Gazette 13 December 1870 ). however, he continued to trade successfully. In census records, he was recorded in 1871 at 1 Princes St as a picture dealer, age 40, with his wife Caroline and five children, in 1881 at 43 Davies St as a master gilder, long time 51, born St Marylebone, employing two men and a son, with his wife Susannah and six children ages between 10 and 20, of whom the eldest son, Herbert, old age 19, was recorded as a gilder.

Turner ’ s label from 43 Davies St, thus dating to 1873-90, on George Hayter ’ s 5th Earl Stanhope ( National Portrait Gallery ) describes him as a carver and gilder, picture framemaker, picture refinisher, photographer and publisher, besides offering his services to restore and mount engravings, mount drawings and photograph and make albums to order .
Found a mistake ? Have some excess information ? Please contact Jacob Simon at [ electronic mail protected ].

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