British picture framemakers, 1750-1950

A selective directory, to be revised and expanded annually. 1st edition November 2007. Contributions are welcome, to Jacob Simon at jsimon@npg.org.uk. Cross-references to other makers are indicated by adding '(qv)' after the relevant name. Bibliography and resources.

Thomas Fentham 1774-1808, Thomas Fentham & Co 1811-1825, Fentham & Bainbridge 1820, John Bainbridge 1823-1824. In the Strand, London 1774, at 49 Strand 1777-1778, 52 Strand, 'opposite Old Round Court', 1778-1794, 136 Strand, near Somerset House, 1793-1824. Carvers and gilders, glass grinders, looking glass and picture framemakers.

Thomas Fentham (d.1808) was a leading looking glass and picture framemaker in the Strand, whose business was carried on after his death by his son, Thomas John Fentham (1787-1843?), and son-in-law John Bainbridge, and subsequently acquired by William Froom (qv). Thomas John Fentham, the son of Thomas and Penelope Fentham, was the youngest of their seven children to be christened at St Martin-in-the-Fields between 1773 and 1787.

Thomas Fentham: His name was occasionally mis-spelt in documentation but Fentham would appear to be the individual who made picture frames and glasses for Edward Knight, Kidderminster, 1774-91 (Penny 1986 p.813). He also supplied Lady Heathcote with a frame for a picture of Mr Folkstone in 1779, and he was paid by Charles Townley for picture frames in 1782 (DEFM). He supplied picture frames for the 3rd Earl of Egremont, 1794, 1799-1800 (West Sussex Record Office, PHA/7557, 8056). He made numerous looking glasses, as described in the Dictionary of English Furniture Makers and elsewhere.

Fentham traded from three addresses in the Strand. From 49 Strand, 1777-8, and probably by 1774: few works are known from this period but in January 1778 Fentham wrote to John Grimston in Yorkshire concerning the dispatch of artists' materials.

From 52 Strand, 1778-94: Fentham took out insurance from 52 Strand with the Sun Fire Office on utensils and stock in his warehouse and workshop in the Hop Garden, St Martin's Lane, in 1779, and on his house in Close Hill, Hampstead in 1780. Fentham's richly carved neoclassical picture frame for Catherine Read's pastel, Simon Yorke II and his sister Etheldred (National Trust, Erddig, Wales), one of various items he supplied for the Yorkes, 1775-9, has his label describing him as 'Frame Maker and Glass Grinder, 52, near the New Exchange Buildings Strand' (repr. Gilbert 1996 p.198). Another label from this address can be found on George Romney's Mrs Beal Bonnell, c.1779-80 (Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, repr. Gilbert 1996 p.199); the same label can be found on a set of Thomas Hickey portraits of Charles Dilly and his sisters (Sotheby's Colonnade, London 19 February 1997 lot 177). A pair of labelled mirror frames, also from 52 Strand, describe Fentham as 'Carver, Gilder Picture Frame-Maker, Glass Grinder, No. 52. Opposite Old Round Court Strand, London. Sells all sorts of Green and Gold Dressing Glasses, Pier-glasses, Girandole's, &c. &c. Venetian Window-Blinds, Green and Blew. N.B. Old Picture & glass frames Cleaned or gilt and glasses new silver'd' (label repr. Christie's 10 July 2003 lot 96).

From 136 Strand, from 1793, Fentham's trade label describes him as 'Manufacturer of Looking-Glasses, Convex and Concave Mirrors, and all sorts of Picture and Glass Frames, Glass for Exportation.' (found in two versions, one with floral border, the other datable to c.1800 from the printer's address; example of the former on a looking glass repr. Sotheby's 15 November 1996 lot 95; example of the latter, with Michael Sim, 2005, on a looking glass repr. Country Life 9 June 2005).

Fentham's premises at 136 Strand, a capacious house, shop and premises, were leased at £50 a year for 50 years from 25 March 1794, as advertised when the property was sold in 1820 (The Times 1 May 1820). Fentham was also listed in London directories at 32 Strand in 1779, 51 Strand in 1784 and at 130 Strand, probably typesetting errors.

The next generation: Thomas Fentham's lengthy will, dated 12 September 1808 and proved 15 October 1808, described him as glass manufacturer, and suggests that he was a relatively wealthy man. He requested that a monument be erected in his memory, uniquely among the picture framemakers listed in this Directory. He set out the basis for the business to be carried on for four years by his son, Thomas John Fentham, and son-in-law John Bainbridge, and made provision for his other son, William Fentham, and for his four daughters. A notice to his creditors to prove their debts was published in 1815 (The Times 26 December 1815) and the provisions of his will were subject to court action as late as 1846 (The Times 14 July 1846).

The business was apparently trading as Thomas Fentham & Co as early as 1807 (DEFM). T.J. Fentham's and John Bainbridge's partnership as Thomas Fentham & Co, glass manufacturers, was dissolved in 1819 (London Gazette 13 July 1819). The business was described as C.T. Fentham & Company in 1820. By 1823 Bainbridge was in sole possession at 136 Strand, but within two years the business was operating in the name of William Froom (qv). Thomas John Fentham appears to be the individual at West End, Hampstead, who died in 1843. William Fentham traded from 54 Belvedere Place, Borough Road, from 1820-1836 or later.

Sources: Guildhall Library: Records of Sun Fire Office, vols 274 no.413688, 287 no.434826; East Riding of Yorkshire Archives and Records Service, Grimston papers, DDGR/42/28/7, see Simon 1996 p.145.

Peter Ferraro, 15 New Court, Broad St, Golden Square, London 1813, 5 Lower James St, Golden Square 1815-1839, 67 Quadrant, Regent St (later 67 Regent St) 1826-1866. Carver, gilder and looking glass manufacturer.

Ferraro's name was often mis-spelt. In 1825, 'Peter Farraro' attended a meeting of more than fifty master carvers and gilders who resolved to resist the demands of journeymen for an increase in wages (The Times 30 June 1825). Peter Ferraro (c.1787-1875?) was recorded in the 1861 census at 67 Regent St as a retired carver and gilder, age 74, born in Ireland. He may be the individual who married Elizabeth Swift in 1811 and who died age 92 in 1875, despite the slight age discrepancy. Ferraro worked from 67 Quadrant, Regent St, from 1826; he was listed at 7 Regent St in 1831 and at 69 Quadrant in 1839, probably in error. He may be the Peter Ferrard, carver and gilder, who was listed in New St, Golden Square as early as 1811.

Ferraro may be the 'Mr Ferrara' who made a gilt frame for a portrait of the Prince of Wales delivered to the Prince by Peter Edward Stroehling in 1813 (Millar 1969 p.119). Notably, he provided extensive gilding and carving work, including table ornaments at the substantial cost of £1166, for the Coronation banquet of George IV in 1821 (see Sources below). He also supplied various pedestals and ornaments for the Royal Household in 1815 and for Brighton Pavilion in 1823, as well as regilding pier glasses and picture frames at St James's Palace in 1831 (DEFM).

Sources: Geoffrey de Bellaigue, 'A Royal Mise-en-Scène: George IV's Coronation Banquet', Furniture History, vol.29, 1993, pp.178-9, 181.

Field Brothers 1921-1929, Arthur Field 1930-1933, Arthur Field Ltd 1934-1940. At 37 Endell St, London WC2 1921-1940, 13 Duke St, St James's 1933-1934. Picture dealers, wholesale picture frame manufacturers.

Arthur William Field (b.1879) was working for a dealer in works of art in 1901, when he was recorded in the census living at 602 Holloway Road, age 21, born Bloomsbury. Later, from 1921, he traded jointly as Field Brothers, picture dealers, from 37 Endell St, taking on a business previously owned by G. Cohen. The partnership between Francis Goodwin Field and Arthur William Field, fine art dealers at 37 Endell St, was dissolved in 1929 (London Gazette 23 August 1929).

Field Brothers, followed by Arthur Field, picture dealers, had an account with the artists' colourmen, Roberson, 1927-32, from Endell St (Woodcock 1997). By 1936 A.W. Field and C.W. Field were listed as directors of Arthur Field Ltd (late Field Bros), dealers in works of art and antique frames, advertising a large stock of old carved frames. The National Gallery has some English centre and corner frames supplied by Arthur Field, who is mentioned in correspondence from 1930. The National Portrait Gallery acquired a frame from Arthur Field Ltd in 1936.

Thomas Fielder, 2 Greek St, Soho, London 1820, 26 Greek St by 1823-1833, 3 Greek St 1831-1854. Carver and gilder, looking glass and picture framemaker.

Thomas Fielder (d.1854) produced picture and looking glass frames from Greek St in Soho for more than 30 years. In 1825, he attended a meeting of more than fifty master carvers and gilders who resolved to resist the demands of journeymen for an increase in wages (The Times 30 June 1825). In his will, dated 24 January and proved 13 April 1854, Thomas Fielder, carver and gilder of Greek St, left his estate to his wife, Sarah.

George Fielder (d.1826), gold beater of 2 Greek St, working there by 1811, was perhaps Thomas's father; he died leaving everything to his wife, Louisa Frances, in his will, dated 9 March 1818 and proved 18 February 1826. She continued in business, being listed at 2 Greek St as a gold beater in 1829 and as a fancy stationer in 1835. In 1828, 'S. Fielder' advertised that following the death of her brother, George Fielder, whose business as Fielder's Repository of Fancy she entirely superintended, she had commenced business in this line at 26 Greek St (The Times 12 April 1828); she is presumably the Sophia Fielder who was trading as a fancy stationer at 23 Greek St in 1836.

Thomas Fielder described himself on his trade label as 'Carver, Gilder, Looking-Glass and Picture Frame Manufacturer' (example from 26 Greek St on frame of portrait after John Jackson's Duke of York, National Portrait Gallery; example from 3 Greek St, repr. A Hang of English Frames, Arnold Wiggins & Sons, 1996, and another in Landauer coll., Metropolitan Museum, New York, see DEFM).

The Fine Art Society Ltd, 148 New Bond St, London from 1876. Fine art dealers, initially also picture framemakers.

The Fine Art Society advertised regularly in the 1880s: 'Frame-Making And Mounting. The Fine Art Society employ a special staff of workmen in these departments, in which excellence of workmanship and novelty of design are specially aimed at' (The Year's Art 1880-6). The business continued to offer picture framing for some years but thereafter it increasingly focused on dealing in fine art. In 1919 the Fine Art Society refinanced the framing business of Alfred Stiles & Sons (qv), subsequently placing a good deal of work with Alfred Stiles & Sons Ltd, as the business became known.

Alexander Finlay, Glasgow, active early 19th century. A candidate for a proposed supplement to this Directory. Contact Jacob Simon at jsimon@npg.org.uk.

Balthasar Flessier. A candidate for a proposed supplement to this Directory, to include framemakers active before 1750. Contact Jacob Simon at jsimon@npg.org.uk.

George Foord 1826-1843, Mrs Elizabeth Mary Foord 1844-1856, Misses Eliza & Catherine Foord, trading as Eliza & C. Foord 1857-1858, Foord & Dickinson 1859-1899. At 52 Wardour St, London 1826-1828, 53 Wardour St 1829, 52 Wardour St 1832-1842, 90 Wardour St 1843-1878, renumbered 1878, 129 Wardour St 1878-1898, 65 Berwick St, Oxford St 1899. Carvers and gilders, picture framemakers.

George Foord (1796 or before-1842) undertook work for various exhibiting societies as well as framing for individual artists. Following his death, the business was carried on by his wife, and then briefly by two of his daughters, before becoming a partnership between his son, Charles Foord, and the business's foreman, William Dickinson. In 1899 the business became George Minns & Co (qv).

The business trading as Foord, 1826-58: George Foord married Elizabeth Mary Gifford (1798-1856) at St Olave's, London in 1817, and had three sons and five daughters between 1819 and 1840, all of whom were christened at St Anne's Soho. He may at first have been an engraver by trade; a man of this name was so listed at 163 Wardour St in 1823. He was first recorded as a carver in 1826, and was listed at 52 Wardour St in the 1841 census as a carver and gilder, age 45 (ages were rounded down to the nearest five in this census). He is presumably the George Foord who died in 1842 in the St James's Westminster registration district.

Following his death, his wife, Elizabeth Mary Foord, continued trading in her own name until her death in 1856, whereupon her daughters, Eliza Mary Foord (1819-79) and Catherine Foord (1840-1919), continued the business under the provisions of their mother's will, dated 2 September 1854 and proved 10 March 1856. She left the business to her three daughters but it was 'to be carried on under the entire and sole management of William Dickinson', her foreman. If her daughters married, the business and stock were to pass to their brother Charles Foord and to Dickinson, as apparently happened in 1859 when the firm became Foord & Dickinson (see below).

The business worked for various institutional customers. Foord's acted as agent for the Royal Manchester Institution in 1834 when George Foord corresponded about an exhibition and was sent a drawing by W.A. Nesfield, and later in 1855 when Foord's was sent a drawing by W.C. Smith (Manchester Archives and Local Studies, M6/1/55/60, M6/1/49/6/p122). George Foord seems to have been framemaker to the Society of Painters in Water-Colour, c.1830-50, according to Jane Bayard, in view of the frequent mention of his name in member's correspondence. He and his successors framed watercolours as well as oil paintings, for example Copley Fielding's exhibition watercolour, View up Loch Linnhe, 1846 (Sotheby's 8 April 1998 lot 31), which is labelled E.M. FOORD at 90 Wardour St.

In the late 1850s, trading initially as Eliza & C. Foord, the business undertook some work for both the National Portrait Gallery, 1857-69 (see Simon 1996 p.134, reproducing an invoice) and the National Gallery, 1857-83, for which the main focus of their work was in occasionally providing polished holly frames for drawings from the Turner bequest (National Gallery Archive, NG13/3). However, the business also provided frames for paintings at the National Gallery, including in 1858 a superb setting designed by architect and designer, Owen Jones, for a pair of pictures attributed to Quinten Massys, Christ and The Virgin. Ralph Wornum, keeper at the National Gallery, noted in his diary, 15 February 1858, that he had 'received from Ford's the frame for the Quentin Matsys pictures, made from a design by Owen Jones' (information from Nicholas Penny, see National Gallery Archive, NG32/67).

Various artists used Foord's. J.M.W. Turner used the business in 1840 to frame Venice, the Bridge of Sighs, to match the frame made by Foord for John Sheepshanks for Venice from the Canale della Giudecca (Victoria and Albert Museum, see Gage 1980 p.176). John Ruskin used Foord from 1844 until at least 1879, most especially in mounting the Turner drawings in the National Gallery in the 1850s, 'with good help from Richard Williams of Messrs. Foord's', but also in providing frames for the Turner drawings he gave to the University Galleries at Oxford in 1861. Ruskin's watercolour, Tomb at Verona, formerly at Brantwood, was framed by Foord & Dickinson (Ruskin Library, Lancaster, where there are cases and frames by Foord & Dickinson from the Ruskin School, Oxford).

Foord undertook some work for the marine painter, E.W. Cooke, 1840-7, including the provision of second-hand frames, but Criswick (qv) was Cooke's main framemaker at this period. Foord supplied the frames for David Roberts's A View of Toledo, 1841, William Clarkson Stanfield's A View of Ischia, 1841, and William Edward Frost's L'Allegro, 1848 (all Royal Collection, see Millar 1992 nos 246, 585, 654).

Foord & Dickinson 1859-99: By 1859 Foord and Dickinson were established at 90 Wardour St as 'carvers, gilders, picture restorers, drawing mounters & frame makers', apparently with partners, Charles Foord (c.1836-1892) and William Dickinson (c.1816-1874). The latter was listed as a partner in London directories from 1859 until 1875.

The business advertised its services as 'Foord & Dickinson, Carvers and Gilders, Picture Frame Makers', offering to mount drawings and etchings, clean and restore pictures and engravings, hang galleries and make frames to artists' own designs, as well as collecting works of art for exhibitions (The Year's Art 1894-99). The firm was known as Foord's of Wardour St until 1899 when it moved away to Berwick St, a year before the business was acquired by a former employee, George Minns, becoming G. Minns & Co (qv) by 1899 (Simon 1996 p.135; The Year's Art 1900).

As one of the National Portrait Gallery's framemakers from 1857 to 1869, the firm used a variety of revival patterns to frame pictures such as the Chandos portrait of Shakespeare in 1864 (repr. Simon 1996 p.28), J.B. van Loo's Lord Hervey in 1864 and the studio of Allan Ramsay portrait, George III in 1866 (repr. Simon 1996 p.180). The business was employed to frame Edwin Landseer's Queen Victoria at Osborne for Queen Victoria in 1867, and framed two other works by Landseer in the Royal Collection, The Connoisseurs: Portrait of the artist with two dogs, exh.1865, and Boz, 1864-5 (Millar 1992 nos 403, 416, 433).

Such traditional work is in contrast to the many frames in the latest styles that Foord's made for Grosvenor Gallery exhibitions from 1877 to 1890. When Mr Williams, Foord's manager, was shown the 1877 exhibition, he viewed it with a truly professional eye, 'But it is a fine lot of frames!', he exclaimed, completely ignoring the pictures (Simon 1996 p.134). Rossetti, Sandys, Leighton, Burne-Jones, Whistler and John Collier were all Grosvenor Gallery artists and were all framed by Foord's. While Sandys had been going to Foord's for some years, most of these artists began using Foord's in about 1870 following the retirement from business of another framemaker, Joseph Green (qv). These artists are discussed in more detail below in approximate chronological order.

Foord's supplied many of Frederick Sandys's frames, 1861-98 (Elzea 2001 pp.336-9, for a detailed listing), including drawings of W.H. Clabburn, 1870 (Norwich Castle Museum), Kittie, 1873 (Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, see Bennett 1988 p.185) and Margaret Oliphant, 1881 (National Portrait Gallery, repr. Simon 1996 p.175).

Holman Hunt used Foord & Dickinson from about 1861 until at least 1878. He had used Joseph Green (qv) in the 1850s, and then again in 1865, but possibly had a falling-out with him in the early 1860s. Between 1861 and 1863, Foord's made the frame for The Thames at Chelsea, Evening, 1853 (Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge), and probably executed the frames for The Lantern-Maker's Courtship, c.1854-60 (Manchester Art Gallery), the large and small versions of The Afterglow in Egypt, respectively 1854-57, 1860-63 (Southampton Art Gallery; Ashmolean Museum, Oxford), and some at least of his series of watercolours painted in the Near East and Egypt, with their raised-pattern mounts and stencilled frames. The evidence for this concentrated burst of work is the series of payments in Hunt's account at Coutts Bank, to 'Foord & Co.' and to 'Messrs Dickenson'. Subsequently, Foord's made the frame for On the Plains of Esdraelon above Nazareth, 1877-8 (Ashmolean Museum). These frames are reproduced in the section, 'Frames', in Bronkhurst 2006, see vol.2, pp.304-5, also pp.295, 306-8, 313).

Dante Gabriel Rossetti used Foord & Dickinson from the early 1870s, and possibly as early as 1868 when he became disillusioned with Joseph Green (qv). He wrote in 1876, 'it is evident that F. and D. are the only frame makers', after trying another business run by L. Bertram (qv). Foord & Dickinson are mentioned by Rossetti's patron, William Graham, in correspondence with the artist and with Edward Burne-Jones, 1869-76 (Garnett 2000, letters A26, A28, A40, A45, A70, B2, B6, B17).

In the case of Edward Burne-Jones, one of the six studies for his Briar Rose series, 1889 (Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery) has the label of Foord & Dickinson at 129 Wardour St (Wildman 1995 p.325). Letters to Burne-Jones from the Pre-Raphaelite patron and collector William Graham, 1869-76, also make reference to the firm, indicating that it made frames for Burne-Jones's Days of Creation, 1872-76 (Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, MA.), the Story of Troy, 1878-90 (Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery) and the Briar Rose series, 1872-98 (various museums) (Garnett 2000, letters B2, B6, B17). The Days of Creation was a series of six watercolours, set together in an aedicular frame designed by the artist and now lost; it was one of those works in the 1877 Grosvenor Gallery exhibition noted above, which the manager of Foord's so admired, and its frame was noticed both in W.M. Rossetti's review of the exhibition (The Academy, 5 May 1877, pp.396-7), and in his review of William Graham's sale at Christie's (The Times 5 April 1886) (information from Lynn Roberts).

Edward Lear referred to the firm several times in letters, 1870-86, and he held more than one exhibition of his work at Foord & Dickinson's. He used the framemaker as his agent, and the shop as a gallery, giving Foord's as his address, and referring in 1883 to 'my gallery at Foords', and calling it '"Foord's of Wardoff Street" because it warded off the wolf from the door'. Lear's painting, Ravenna, 1882, has Foord & Dickinson's frame label (Sotheby's 15 June 2000 lot 48).

Lord Leighton used Foord & Dickinson from at least 1872 onwards, judging from labelled frames which include Weaving the Wreath, exh.1872 (Sudley Art Gallery, Liverpool, see Morris 1996 p.266), Sir Richard Burton, 1875 (National Portrait Gallery), Professor Giovanni Costa, before 1878 (Leighton House, London), Professor Giovanni Costa, 1878 (Leighton House), Alexandra Leighton, 1890 (Leighton House) and Fatidica, exh.1894 (Lady Lever Art Gallery, Port Sunlight). One of Leighton's sketchbooks (Royal Academy, file 28E, LEI/4, no IV) has a frame corner and section drawn beside a note of Foord's address until 1878 at 90 Wardour St (information from Lynn Roberts). Leighton writes of the dilatoriness of a 'horrible framemaker' in 1876, but without naming him.

James MacNeill Whistler makes various references to Foord & Dickinson in his correspondence in 1871, 1878-9 and 1881. A letter of 1871 to Walter Greaves reveals that the boatman/ painter, credited with making some of Whistler's frames, was actually only responsible for decorating them with the artist's idiosyncratic 'paterns' after they had been delivered by Foord & Dickinson. Also included in the correspondence is Foord's invoice for the period 1876-8, which itemizes 'A wainscot reeded frame own pattern gilt with green gold' at £6.9s, with glazing over the flat or mount, and which may refer to Harmony in Blue and Silver: Trouville, 1865 (Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston). Other frames and deliveries to and from the Grosvenor Gallery are also itemized (www.whistler.arts.gla.ac.uk/letters/08944.asp). Further references in the correspondence indicate that, along with the framemaker George Tacchi, Foord's appears on Whistler's list of creditors in his bankruptcy papers of 1878 onwards. His bankruptcy did not, however, prevent Whistler from ordering a frame for Crepuscule in Flesh Colour and Green: Valparaiso (Tate) from Foord's in May 1879 (later reframed by Frederick Henry Grau, qv). Foord's made the artist-designed frame on Whistler's The Gold Scab: Eruption in Frilthy Lucre, 1879, which was originally intended for The Three Girls, c.1876, commissioned by Frederick Richards Leyland. Foord's label can be found on the frame of the chalk Study: Seated Figure, c.1878 (Freer Gallery of Art, Washington DC, see Margaret MacDonald, James McNeill Whistler: drawings, pastels, and watercolours: a catalogue raisonné, 1995, no.694).

Other artists whose work was framed by Foord & Dickinson include Albert Moore who corresponded with the Newcastle collector, James Leatheart, concerning the cost of framing Battledore and Shuttlecock in 1871 (Simon 1996 p.87), and whose label can be found on an oil sketch, Blossoms, exh.1881 (Sotheby's 11 November 1998 lot 279), John Everett Millais whose Thomas Carlyle, 1877 (National Portrait Gallery) has a labelled frame and whose small version of Disraeli, 1881 (Royal Collection, see Millar 1992 p.186, no.495) was also framed by the business, and John Collier, whose 7th Earl of Shaftesbury, 1877, and Charles Darwin, 1883, have labelled frames (both National Portrait Gallery).

Sources: Jane Bayard, Works of Splendor and Imagination: The Exhibition Watercolor 1770-1870, exh. cat., Yale Center for British Art, 1881, p.33, n.40; E.T. Cook & Alexander Wedderburn, eds, The Works of John Ruskin, vol.35, 1908, p.484; Robert Hewison, Ruskin and Oxford: The Art of Education, exh. cat., Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, 1996, p.129; E.W. Cooke ledger 1833-78, Royal Academy Library; John Munday, Edward William Cooke 1811-1880, Woodbridge, 1996, especially pp.228, 375-9; O. Doughty and J.R. Wahl, Letters of Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Oxford, 1967, p.1443; Edward Lear: Selected Letters, ed. Vivien Noakes, 1988, pp.216, 238, 265, 270, 276; Later Letters of Edward Lear, ed. Lady Strachey, 1911, p.366; Susan Chitty, That Singular Person Called Lear, 1988, p.173; Lord Leighton's Letters, ed. B. Curle, Kensington & Chelsea Libraries & Arts service, 1983, no.149; online edition of Whistler's correspondence at Centre for Whistler Studies; David Curry, James MacNeill Whistler: Uneasy Pieces, New York, 2004, pp.206-7 (for The Gold Scab). Information from Dr Lorne Campbell deriving from census records and various wills, including that of Eliza Mary Foord; information from Lynn Roberts concerning the work of particular artists.

Charles Fox, see Grundy & Fox

Martin Foxhall from 1758, Martin and Edward Foxhall, trading as Foxhall & Sons 1783-1790 or later, Edward Foxhall by 1793-1799, Foxhall & Fryer 1800-1810, trading as Foxhall & Co 1805-1816. At 'The Golden Head', Great Andrew's St, Seven Dials, London 1758-1765, Cavendish St from 1767, 19 Cavendish St (later Old Cavendish St) 1785-1816, 29 Old Cavendish St 1805-1810 (Post Office directory as no.29, misprint?). Carvers, gilders and picture framemakers, upholsterers from 1795.

Martin Foxhall (d.1797) and his son Edward (1756-1815) ranged beyond carved and gilt work, providing soft furnishings as well, the father advertising fabrics, the son upholstery. Both father and son did work at Fonthill in Wiltshire.

Martin Foxhall, Foxhall & Son 1758-90 or later: Martin Foxhall's rococo trade card as carver and gilder shows the range of his services, advertising 'Pictures Carefully Cleand, Lin'd & Fram'd, in the neatest manner. NB. All sorts of Hosiery & Haberdashery Goods, with Checks and Irish Cloth, at the Lowest Prices' (repr. Heal 1972 p.56). He subscribed to George Richardson's A Treatise on the five orders of Architecture, 1787. His will, dated 9 April 1794, was proved 6 October 1797. A sale was held in 1798 of his household furniture and other effects (The Times 4 June 1798, describing him as 'Mr Foxhall' of 'No. 19, on the East-side of Harley-street, Cavendish Square').

Martin Foxhall is thought to have supplied furniture for Fonthill in about 1760. The 3rd Duke of Dorset was billed £21 by Foxhall & Son (the reading of the name is uncertain) for Maratta frames for two landscapes by Gainsborough (see A Guide to Picture Frames at Knole). It is possible that John Downman used Foxhall's to frame his work on occasion. The business's frame label can be found on his Mrs Hugh Watts, 1783 (sold Christie's 10 July 1990 lot 87), reading, 'Foxhall & Sons, Carvers Gilders and Picture Frame Makers, No 19 Cavendish Street'. In 1799 Downman made drawings of Mrs Foxhall, presumably Edward Foxhall's wife, and their son (British Museum).

Edward Foxhall, Foxhall & Fryer by 1793-1815: Edward Foxhall enrolled at the Royal Academy schools in 1775. He married Elizabeth Ann Moore, the daughter of a leading sculptor, at St Marylebone in 1790. Sir John Soane, his friend and fellow pupil at the Royal Academy Schools, designed a new front for his shop in Cavendish St in 1799, and later took Foxhall's son into his office as a draughtsman in 1812 (Simon 1996 p.127). From at least 1802, in partnership with James Fryer, upholstery became a prominent part of Edward Foxhall's business, apparently hiring out furnishings on occasion, as when Lady Cotton of Madingley Hall, Cambridge, used 'Foxhall', 1805-9. James Fryer described himself as an upholsterer in a court case in 1803 (The Proceedings of the Old Bailey). In his will, dated 14 April 1813 and proved 29 December 1815, Edward Foxhall likewise described himself as an upholsterer of Old Cavendish St, making bequests to his sons, Edward Martin (1793-1862) and John Francis, as well as to his wife, Elizabeth, and four daughters.

Edward Foxhall worked for Philip Yorke at his town house in 1783 and at Wimpole Hall, Cambridgeshire, in the early 1790s, carving ornament for the Yellow Drawing Room to the design of Sir John Soane (Gunnis 1968 p.156; Wimpole Hall, guidebook, 1979, p.24). He also worked at other town and country houses in the 1780s (Gunnis 1968 p.156). From February 1800, Messrs Foxhall & Fryer, sometimes described as Fryer & Foxhall, sold sale catalogues on behalf of Mr Christie, Mr Phillips and others, for auctions of varying descriptions but including material from Fonthill (The Times 5 February 1800, 20 August 1807 etc).

Edward Foxhall acted for William Beckford of Fonthill, who described him as 'the infamous Blockhead from Old Cavendish Street', yet mourned his death in 1815, 'I haven't failed to perceive and feel the horror of the loss of Foxhall' (Simon 1996 p.122). Foxhall made frames for the collection, witness the entry in George Romney's ledger in October 1789, 'The Picture of Alderman Beckford sent to Font Hill the care of Mr. Foxhall who made the Frame'. But he also undertook much of the furnishing of Fonthill and acted extensively as Beckford's agent in purchasing works of art and commissioning pictures, exciting a good deal of animosity among artists in the process, as Joseph Farington reveals in his diaries, 1797-9 (Farington, vols.3, 4, pp.836, 840, 905-7, 909, 1259, 1262).

Sources: Simon Jervis, 'Splendentia recognita: furniture by Martin Foxhall for Fonthill', Burlington Magazine, vol.147, 2005, pp.376-82, to which this account is indebted; Sidney Hutchison, 'The Royal Academy Schools, 1768-1830', Walpole Society, vol.38, p.142, giving Edward Foxhall's age as 19 on 12 May 1775; National Portrait Gallery Archive, George Romney Ledger, 1786-96, see also entries for 5 August 1790, 22 July 1791.

Jeremiah Freeman c.1791-1811, Freeman & Son (Jeremiah and William Freeman) 1810-1821, William Freeman 1822-1845 or later, Freeman Bros (William junr, Charles and James Freeman) 1850-1851, William Freeman junior (also listed as William Freeman and W.P.B. Freeman) 1851-1864 or later. At 9 London Lane, Norwich c.1791-1795, 2 London Lane 1795-1822, renamed by 1829, Repository of Art, 2 London St by 1829-1850, Pottergate 1836-1850, also at Swan Lane (connecting London St and Pottergate as it then was), 3 London St 1854-1859 or later, Rampant Horse St by 1859-1864 or later. Carvers and gilders, picture framemakers, looking glass manufacturers, printsellers, later picture dealers, etc.

The development of this leading Norwich family business over three generations, Jeremiah, his son William and his grandsons including William Philip Barnes Freeman, has recently been studied by John Stabler. All three were also active as artists, as well as carvers and gilders. Here, each generation is examined in turn.

Jeremiah Freeman, Freeman & Son 1798-1821: Jeremiah Freeman (c.1763-1823) was admitted a Norwich freeman in 1792 (DEFM). His partnership with his son, William Freeman, trading as J. & W. Freeman from about 1810, was dissolved in 1818 (London Gazette 22 February 1823), although the business continued to be listed in trade directories as a partnership until 1821. Jeremiah Freeman was described as an 'eminent carver and gilder' in his obituary notice in the Norwich Mercury.

In 1808 the business was advertising lamps and candles holders, 'in the Grecian, Roman, and Egyptian Stiles', bronze and gold figures, looking glasses, girandoles, a range of new publications of prints and drawing books, and supplies for drawing and painting (Fawcett 1974 p.54, quoting the Norwich Mercury 23 January 1808). Freeman's trade card from 2 London Lane (repr. Stabler 2006 p.62; example in Guildhall Library, London) describes him as 'Carver and Gilder, Looking-Glass Manufacturer, and Print-Seller', and indicates that he made all kinds of furniture in carving and gilding.

Jeremiah and William Freeman both exhibited with the Norwich Society of Artists, 1805-17. Jeremiah was President of the Society in 1818, and his son, William, in 1820. They are said to have acted for the Society, offering their shop for the annual receipt of exhibition pictures. One of the Freemans accompanied John Crome on his visit to Paris in 1814 (Ayres 1985 p.146). The business charged for picture frames for Holkham Hall, Norfolk, in 1808 and 1817 and for gilding work, 1821-8, 1830-7 (Stabler 2006 pp.141, 143).

William Freeman 1822-1845: Jeremiah's son, William Freeman (1784-1877), was Sheriff of Norwich in 1842 and Mayor in 1843. In the 1851 census he was recorded as a magistrate, formerly a carver and gilder and upholsterer, age 66, born in London, living in Earlham Road, Heigham, Norwich.

As 'Carver, Gilder & Looking Glass, Manufacturer, Wholesale & Retail', Freeman used a trade label from London and Swan Lane, Norwich, in the late 1820s and the 1830s, offering 'The Greatest Number & Variety of Looking Glasses, Concave & Convex Mirrors' as well as advertising lighting, picture and print frames, gold borders for rooms, plate glass, British and foreign prints, the cleaning of pictures, and supplies for painting and drawing (see Johnson coll. Trade Cards 24 (86). This label is found on a wide variety of mirrors and furniture (examples are repr. Regional Furniture, vol.7, 1993, pp.29-30, 66 (a rococo-style table at Blickling Hall, Norfolk). The same design was used in Freeman's billhead, including an account dated 24 February 1829 (repr. Stabler 2006 p.63 where other Freeman labels, cards and stencils are reproduced, pp.61-5).

As 'Carver, Gilder, Looking-Glass Manufacturer & Print Seller', Freeman produced a handsome double-sided trade sheet on yellow paper, again from London and Swan Lane, dating to about 1840, advertising upholstery, carpets and floor cloth, cabinet furniture, paper hangings, mirrors and picture frames. The business also offered artist's supplies including Ackermann's and Newman's superfine water colours in boxes or cakes, Whatman's drawing paper, Turnbull's drawing boards, crayon papers, oil colours, canvases, varnishes, easels, palettes, prepared boards, panels and brushes. Also Banks & Forster's extra fine, and Brookman & Langdon's prepared genuine Cumberland black lead pencils, Freeman's and those of other makers (Christopher Lennox-Boyd coll.). The business had an account with the artists' colourmen, Roberson, 1832-6 (Woodcock 1997).

There was another William Freeman, a cabinet maker and upholsterer, relationship unknown, who used the same address at 2 London St as our William Freeman (Stabler 2006 p.142); he was listed at this address from at least 1839 to 1843. The reverse side of the double-sided trade sheet described above is for Freeman, 'Upholsterer, Cabinet and Chair Manufacturer, and Paper Hanging Warehouse', from London and Pottergate Streets, opposite the top of Bridewell Alley, Norwich. It features a wide range of cabinet furniture, paper hangings and interior furnishings. William Freeman the cabinet maker was listed at 133 Surrey Rd, Norwich in the 1851 census as born in Norwich, age 64, while in the same census our William Freeman was recorded in Earlham Road as born in London, age 66 (see above). To speculate, perhaps they were cousins who worked together. Interestingly, their shared premises at 2 London St were also occupied by a tea dealer, J. & A. Lammas in 1842 (G.K. Blyth's Norwich Guide and Directory, 1842, advertisement).

Freeman Bros and the third generation, from 1850: William Freeman's son, William Philip Barnes Freeman (1813-97), carver, gilder and artist, was made a Norwich freeman in 1835 (DEFM). He married in 1838 and again in 1850. As W. Freeman, Jun., he advertised in 1838 that he had taken over the business of Henry Wellsman (Stabler 2006 p.144, quoting the Norwich Mercury). His short-lived partnership with his brothers, Alfred Freeman and Charles Jeremiah Freeman as upholsterers, cabinet makers, carvers and gilders was dissolved in January 1851 as far as regards Alfred, and his remaining partnership with Charles Jeremiah was dissolved in October 1851 (London Gazette 7 January 1851, 7 October 1851). In 1864 William Freeman junr was listed as a carver, gilder and photographic artist at Rampant Horse St, but by 1867 he was listed as William Philip Barnes Freeman, artist, at 5 Grove Place, Surrey Road, suggesting that he had given up business as a carver and gilder. He was listed in the 1881 census as an artist in oil and drawing master; his work is represented in the collection of the Norwich Castle Museum.

His brother, Charles Jeremiah Freeman (c.1815-1875), traded independently from 37 London St until at least 1867; he was described as an upholsterer, cabinet maker, decorator and mahogany merchant in 1854 (White's History, Gazetteer & Directory of Norfolk) and in 1859 was trading in partnership as Freeman & Wells, a partnership with John William Wells which was dissolved in December that year (London Gazette 27 March 1860). He was subject to debt proceedings in 1866 (London Gazette 7 August 1866). It was apparently his business that was taken over in about 1870, by William Boswell (qv), William Freeman senr's former apprentice.

Whether connected or not, there was a William Freeman, cabinet and picture framemaker and barber, trading from 34 Ber St in 1908.

The business's trade label is found on some of the frames of the Norwich civic portraits, which Freeman repaired and restored in 1864.

Sources: DEFM (entry by Robert Williams, with references to Norwich directories); Stabler 2006; M. Rajnai, Norwich Society of Artists 1805-1833: Members - Exhibitors, n.d., extracts from Norfolk Archaeology, vol. 34, part 4, 1969 (amended) and vol.35, part 2, 1971; Trevor Fawcett, The Rise of English Provincial Art: Artists, Patrons, and Institutions outside London, 1800-1830, Oxford, 1974, p 54 (for the Norwich Society of Artists); Andrew Moore, Family & Friends: A Regional Survey of British Portraiture, exh. cat., Norwich Castle Museum, 1992, pp.51-2 (for Norwich civic portraits). Miscellaneous family papers are held by the Norfolk and Norwich Record Office, including a reused bank book, 1850-1 with inserted frame label of J. and W. Freeman, carvers, gilders and picture frame makers, 2 London Lane (MC 17/84, 543x8; not consulted).

William Henry Freeman, London, early 19th century. A candidate for a proposed supplement to this Directory. Contact Jacob Simon at jsimon@npg.org.uk.

William Froom 1825-1828, Froom & Cribb by 1829-1831, William Froom 1832-1849. At 136 Strand, London 1825-1849. Carvers and gilders, looking glass manufacturers, picture framemakers.

William Froom (1791-1865) was christened in 1791 at St George the Martyr, Southwark, the son of William and Martha Froom. He first comes to prominence in 1825, when he attended a meeting of more than fifty master carvers and gilders who resolved to resist the demands of journeymen for an increase in wages (The Times 30 June 1825). He followed Fentham & Co (qv) at 136 Strand, long using the description, 'Late Fentham & Co', on his trade label. By 1829 Froom was in partnership with William Cribb (qv), the partnership being dissolved in 1831 (London Gazette 3 May 1831). In the 1839 directory Froom was listed as a looking glassmaker and in the 1841 census as a plate glass manufacturer, age 45 (ages were rounded down to the nearest five years in this census). He would appear to have retired from business in 1849 from entries in the Post Office directory. In the 1851 census he was living in Oxford Square as a landed proprietor. He died on 9 April 1865 at 71 Gloucester Terrace, Hyde Park, leaving a considerable sum in the region of £100,000 to his wife and family, but without mentioning his former business.

Both William Froom's trade label and that of Froom and Cribb, from 136 Strand, list the business as 'Looking Glass Manufacturers, Carvers and Gilders, and Picture Frame Makers', describing the premises as being near Somerset House. An example of Froom's label, as 'W. Froom', can be found on a convex mirror of about 1825 (repr. Sotheby's New York 16 April 2005 lot 46, information from Edgar Harden), while that of Froom & Cribb can be found on the frame of an impression of Henry Dawe's mezzotint, John Philip Kemble as Hamlet, published 30 March 1827 (Christopher Lennox-Boyd collection). A slightly later label, as 'William Froom', from 136 Strand, describes the premises as being near Waterloo Bridge (example on James Ramsay's Ann Hodgson, c.1830, information from Elizabeth Robertson, 26 February 1992).

William Froom should not be confused with William Jacobs Froom (1801-83), who was born at Exeter, and died at Camberwell. William's nephew, William Andrew Froom (1822-70), was trading as a looking glass manufacturer from 9 Bishopsgate Without in the early 1840s. This nephew was bequeathed a sum of money and a house by his uncle.

Sources: information kindly communicated by Gill Turner, 21 August 2007, a descendant of William Andrew Froom, including William Froom's birth and death details, information on the 1851 census and Froom's will, and on his nephew, William Andrew Froom.

Fryer, see Martin Foxhall

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