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 Gabb (active 1746, died 1783), London. Gilder.

Thomas Gabb (d.1783) of St Martin-in-the-Fields took Robert Ansell (qv) as an apprentice in 1746 (Boyd). In 1763, Gabb received a bequest of £60 from his friend, the carver, Jean Antoine Cuenot (qv). Gabb described himself as a gilder of St Marylebone in his own will, dated 16 January 1782 and proved 1 August 1783, referring to Robert Ansell as having borrowed his three wheel lathe.

J. Garbanati, Great Russell St, Bedford Square, London 1800, 4 Great Russell St 1802, carver, gilder and printseller. Joseph Garbanati, 202 High Holborn 1805-1808, 89 High Holborn 1808-1809, 404 Strand 1811-1826, 37 Southampton St, Strand 1826-1852, 39 King's Rd, Chelsea 1851. Carver and gilder, looking glass and picture framemaker.

Joseph Garbanati (c.1775-1852) was one of several Italian carvers who settled in London, Manchester and Edinburgh in the years around 1800. He is presumably the 'J. Garbaneti', who published a caricature from Great Russell St, Bedford Square, in 1800 (BM Satires no.9536). In 1825, 'J. Garbonati' 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). Joseph Garbanati, 37 Southampton St, picture framemaker, took out insurance with the Sun Fire Office in 1826. He was also listed at 22 High Holborn in 1808 (DEFM), perhaps a typographical error, and as a cheesemonger at 37 Southampton St in 1827.

Joseph Garbanati's daughter, Amelia, married another immigrant Italian carver and gilder, Charles Andrew Nosotti (qv), at St James's Westminster in 1827. His son, Paul Garbanati (qv), set up in business independently as a carver in or before 1839. Joseph Garbanati was listed in the 1851 census, age 76, as born in Italy, plate glass warehouse at 37 Southampton St, with another son, Joseph, age 12, the natural son of his old age. In his will dated 29 May 1848 and proved 5 August 1852, he described himself as carver and gilder, instructing his executors to sell much of his estate by auction, including his stock-in-trade, the residue of the estate to be used for the maintenance, education and apprenticeship of his son, Joseph Garbanati, by his former servant, Mary Callighan.

Not a great deal is known about his customers. He advertised on his trade card, 'A Choice Collection of French Carved Picture, Chimney & Pier Frames, also French Carved Console & Pier Tables, Cabriole Chairs, Sofas' (Landauer coll., Metropolitan Museum, New York, see DEFM). In 1807 he supplied looking glass frames for Sir John Geers Cottrell and in 1826 he supplied a 'Handsome French Frame' to the Duke of Norfolk (DEFM). He made a rococo revival frame for George Hayter's study of Teodoro Majocchi for The Trial of Queen Caroline, c.1820 (Devonshire Collection, Chatsworth, information from Charles Noble, 2004); the label on this frame, from 404 Strand, opposite the Adelphi, describes him as 'Carver, Gilder, Looking Glass & Mirror Manufacturer', also offering to clean pictures and regild old frames and to polish and silver old glasses.

Sources: DEFM; Guildhall Library: Records of Sun Fire Office, vol.510.

Garbanati & Sargood 1839-1840, Paul Garbanati 1840-1877. At 19 St Martin's Court, London 1839-1845, shop 130 New Bond St 1844-1845, 91 Newman St 1846-1848, 1852, 92 Newman St 1849-1851, depot 21 North Audley St 1850-1851, 385 Oxford St 1851-1855, 31 High St, St Giles 1856, 14 Marylebone St, Regent's Quadrant 1857-1863, renamed and renumbered 1863/4, 36 Glasshouse St 1864-1870, not listed 1871, 7 Great Russell St 1872, 125 Wardour St 1873, not listed 1874, 72 Princes St, Leicester Square 1875-1877. Carver and gilder, picture frame and looking glass manufacturer and plate glass factor.

Paul Charles Garbanati (1813-77) advertised that he was 'the son of the late Mr J. Garbanati, established 1795' (The Times 13 March 1862), but a direct link with his father's business remains to be established. Initially he was in business with Joseph Sargood at 19 St Martin's Court, but the partnership was dissolved in 1840 (London Gazette 11 February 1840), leaving him to carry on the business. The partnership advertised gilt and fancy wood picture frames as Garbanati & Sargood, working carvers, gilders and picture framemakers, offering a 'Richly ornamented and swept frame, half length, 50 inches by 40 inches, six-inch moulding, £3 10s', and other sizes, offering a printed list of the prices of gilt mouldings, maple, rosewood, and other fancy woods (The Times 28 November 1839). Sargood was subsequently recorded as a picture framemaker at 17 St Ann's Court, Leicester Square in 1839, and as a carver and gilder, active in Walworth in the 1840s.

Paul Charles Garbanati married Mary Ann Williams in 1840 at St Martin-in-the-Fields and had six children between 1846 and 1857. He had recurrent financial problems, being made bankrupt or found insolvent in 1846, 1848, 1855, 1861 and 1870 (London Gazette 24 July 1846, 17 August 1848, 17 April 1855, 9 August 1861, 14 October 1870). From his bankruptcy notices, it is apparent that he tried his hand at other trades, also being listed as a 'photographist' and a dealer in fancy fowls in 1855, and as a picture dealer in 1861. In the 1851 census Paul Garbanati, carver and gilder, age 37, born St Martin's, Middlesex, was listed at 92 Newman St with wife and three daughters, in 1861 at 14 Marylebone St now with five daughters, and in 1871 at Croydon. He died at the age of 64 in 1877 in the Pancras registration district.

Garbanati advertised the 'Cheapest and best manufactured picture frames in the world', of every description of ornamented, gilt and fancy wood picture frame, offering a list of the prices of plate glass, gilt and fancy wood picture frames, room mouldings etc (The Art-Union March 1841 p.42), and as the 'Cheapest House in the Kingdom for Chimney Glasses, Window Cornices, Console Tables, Picture Frames, and every article connected with carving and gilding' (The Art-Union Advertiser January 1848 p.xxiii). In response to an advertisement by C.F. Bielefeld (qv), featuring three designs for The Saint's Day, an Art Union of London print, Garbanati offered a list of prices and descriptions of 18 different frames for this engraving and others, in burnished gold, oil gold, imitation of old carved oak, and fancy woods such as rosewood, maple, satinwood or Russian maple, etc (The Art-Union February 1843 p.29).

Charles Gerrard, 27 Church St, Soho, London 1805-1808, probably until 1811 or later. Carver and gilder.

Charles Gerrard (or Gerard) supplied various frames to the 3rd Earl of Egremont in 1807-8, at a cost of £130 for three paintings by J.M.W. Turner, including the sea-piece, probably Margate, formerly above the chimneypiece in the Turner Room, a large Claude landscape, John Hoppner's conversation piece of Lord Egremont's children and portraits by Thomas Phillips (Country Life 25 September 1980 p.1032). He undertook further work for Lord Egremont, 1808-10, including a 'Rich frame for Mr Turners Gallery', and in 1811 further picture frames (West Sussex Archives, PHA/ 11,194).

Sources: Gervase Jackson-Stops, 'Great Carvings for a Connoisseur: Picture Frames at Petworth', Country Life 25 September 1980 p.1031; Paul Mitchell and Lynn Roberts, 'Notes on Turner's picture frames, Museum Management & Curatorship, vol.17, no.3, 1998, p.325 (for the 1808-10 bills).

Gething & Gainsboro 1889-1891, Gething & Taylor 1891-1896. At 29 Lower Temple St, Birmingham 1891, 102 Charing Cross Road, London 1892-1893, 61 Queens Road, Bayswater W 1894-1896. Picture framemakers and dealers in artists' materials.

The changes in this short-lived business can be traced in its account with the artists' colourmen, Roberson, 1889-98, from Gething & Gainsboro, to Gething & Taylor and then to H.W. Taylor & Co (Woodcock 1997). The partnership between William Norman Gething and Walter Ernest Hewitt, trading as Gething & Gainsboro at 29 Lower Temple St, Birmingham, as manufacturers and retailers of artists' materials, art works, paintings, copperplate etchings and artistic frame manufacturers, was dissolved in January 1891 (London Gazette 20 February 1891), with the business being carried on in London as Gething & Taylor by William Norman Gething and Harry Walter Taylor (qv). Their partnership was dissolved in April 1896, when the business was continued by Harry Walter Taylor (London Gazette 5 May 1896), trading on his own account at 61 Queens Road, Bayswater.

Gething & Taylor advertised 'entire oak frames for oils, water-colours, and all prints', and 'the usual gold frames, but of right workmanship and motif in design', claiming that 'The House of Gething & Taylor should be visited by those who know how desirable it is to show tasteful intelligence in choosing such frames to inset their pictures as will rightly lend themselves to the decorative scheme of their rooms' (The Year's Art 1893).

Gething may be the William N. Gething, artist, age 44, recorded at Wimbledon in the 1901 census.

Vilmo Gibello, see Robert Sielle

Thomas H. Gladwell 1835-1879, Gladwell Brothers 1880-1891. At 39 Newington Causeway 1835, 21 Gracechurch St, London EC 1836-1892, artists' repository 87 Gracechurch St 1851-1865, 20 Gracechurch St 1880-1892, subsequent history not traced here. Manufactory 3 Mint St, Borough 1838-1839, 173 Bishopsgate St without 1840, 156 Borough High St SE 1881-1905. Carvers and gilders, picture and looking glass frame manufacturers, stationers, subsequently printsellers and art dealers.

Thomas Henry Gladwell (1811-79), son of Thomas and Ann Gladwell, was christened at St Sepulchre's in 1812; he died in the Lambeth registration district in 1879. He was listed as a printer in 1835 and as a printer, bookseller and stationer in 1836 but as a picture frame maker by 1838. In the 1841 census, Thomas Gladwell, carver and gilder, was at 19 Gracechurch St. On his billhead in 1840, Thomas Henry Gladwell advertised among other services gilt cornices and room mouldings, engraving and printing neatly executed, 'Ornamental Kit-Cat & Three-Quarter Frames always ready', modern prints framed in maple and gold, a liberal discount to artists and mouldings to any patterns for gilders. His trade card from 21 Gracechurch St offered a somewhat similar range of services (Johnson coll. Trade Cards 24 (46)). In the 1851 census Gladwell was listed as a carver and gilder, employing five men, in 1861 as a stationer, with two sons as assistants, Arthur, age 24, and Thomas, age 19, and in 1871 as a stationer and publisher, employing five assistants.

Following Gladwell's death in 1879, the business became Gladwell Brothers. From 1881, they advertised as 'Practical carvers and gilders, picture frame manufacturers Looking glass frames. Picture frames Re-gilt to equal new' (The Year's Art 1881-88). The partnership between Henry William Gladwell (1834-93) and his brother, Alfred Thomas Gladwell (1841-1906), carvers and gilders, printsellers and publishers, trading as Gladwell Bros at 20-21 Gracechurch St and 156 Borough High St, was dissolved in December 1891 (London Gazette 12 January 1892).

The subsequent division of the business into two rival companies, Alfred Thomas Gladwell and Gladwell & Co, is not traced here beyond the 1890s. Henry William Gladwell died in 1893 (London Gazette 22 September 1893). The following year, Alfred Thomas Gladwell, the surviving brother, advertised that he, 'though the younger brother, is by many years the senior in the business, will continue the same at 164, Fenchurch Street, with the same staff and manufactory as heretofore' (The Year's Art 1894), noting in 1895 that four of his old employees had been 'constantly in the employ of the firm for an aggregate of over one hundred and twenty years' (The Year's Art 1895) and issuing a disclaimer the following year about rivals trading under the Gladwell name, that he was 'in no way associated with other premises that have recently been opened, in the same name, in Fenchurch Street, and elsewhere' (The Year's Art 1896). A successor business, Gladwell & Co, still operates as fine art dealers from 68 Queen Victoria St today, claiming to have been established in 1752.

Glover & Ives, see Charles Ives

Charles Goadsby, see Grundy & Fox

Benjamin Goodison (active 1719, died 1767), 'The Golden Spread Eagle', Long Acre, London by 1727. Cabinet maker.

A carver and furniture maker rather than a picture framemaker, Benjamin Goodison (c.1700-1767) nevertheless produced some significant picture frames. He is treated at length by Geoffrey Beard in the Dictionary of English Furniture Makers, to which this account is indebted. Goodison refers to James Moore as his master in 1719 and 1720. He is probably the Benjamin Goodison, who married Sarah Cooper at St Bride's, Fleet St, in 1723, and had several children christened at St Martin-in-the-Fields, including a son, also Benjamin, in 1735. By 1725 he had his own business, taking Thomas Barber as an apprentice, and by 1726-7 he had succeeded James Moore in the service of the Royal Family. Goodison took his nephew, Benjamin Parran, as apprentice in 1741, and subsequently as partner. Goodison's will was proved on 9 December 1767; he left a considerable house in Mitcham, and was able to bequeath his lawyer son £8000, or half his estate. His business was continued by Benjamin Parran in partnership with his son.

Goodison worked for Frederick Prince of Wales from 1735 until shortly before his death in 1751, as has been discussed by Kimerly Rorschach. In 1747/8 he framed Van Dyck's Madam Cantecroix for the Prince, charging £10 for a whole-length frame, 'Guilt in Oyl Gold with a sanded ground ornamented with Shells'. In 1748 he produced two very large burnished frames for two landscapes by Rubens, 'ornamented with Festoons & flowers all round... with Mosaick work in ye Ground & a Canopy of Flowers at ye top' for £63 each. His accounts for the Royal Household continue until 1760.

Other picture frames made by Goodison include Pietro da Cortona's Coriolanus at Holkham Hall, Norfolk, for which the Earl of Leicester was billed £74 on 4 January 1757: 'A large picture frame carved & gilt in burnish't gold with a scrowle pediment, festoons & other ornaments & iron plates & screwes to fix it togeather' (copy in Victoria and Albert Museum Furniture Dept Archive). He supplied a companion frame for Giuseppe Chiari's Scipio in 1758 for £72.15s. He also made picture frames for the Earl of Cardigan at Deene Park, and produced work for Blenheim Palace, Althorp, Chatsworth, Longford Castle, the Mansion House, and Bedford House.

Sources: DEFM; Tessa Murdoch, 'Goodison, Benjamin (c.1700­1767)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 (www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/39347, accessed 23 Nov 2007); Kimerly Rorschach, 'Frederick, Prince of Wales (1707-51) as Collector and Patron', Walpole Society, vol. 55, 1993, pp.34-5.

Gideon Gosset, Berwick St, London, probably by 1733, certainly by 1747-1749 or later. Carver and gilder, picture framemaker.

Like Isaac Gosset (qv) and Jacob Gosset (qv), Gideon, or Gedeon, was the son of Jean Gosset and Susanne D'Allain, Huguenots from the Channel Islands. It would appear that Gideon, or possibly Jacob, and Isaac were brought up by their uncle, Matthew Gosset (1683-1744), the carver and wax modeller, who was living in London by 1709 (Murdoch 1985 p.1282) and who was resident in Berwick St in 1716.

Gideon Gosset (1707-1785) married Anne Buisset in 1726; they had as many as twelve children between 1727 and 1745, the first two christened at St James's Westminster, and the remainder from 1733 at the Berwick St Huguenot church. Gideon was recorded in Berwick St in the 1749 poll book. In his will, dated 2 March 1784 and proved 15 August 1785, Gideon Gosset made various bequests including to his daughter Mary Carter and his nephew Matthew Gosset. Little is known of Gideon Gosset but he appears to have been closely associated with his brother, Isaac, working in the same street, possibly sharing the same premises. His daughter was a beneficiary under Isaac's will.

Since most documented payments relate specifically to Isaac Gosset, they are grouped below but it remains possible, indeed likely, that some payments to 'Gosset' were to Gideon Gosset. It has been suggested, without explanation, that Gideon is the 'Gosset the frame maker' used extensively by Arthur Pond, 1735-49, for the supply of gilt frames and glasses for pastels; these 'architrave gold frames' can be found on the work of Pond (Simon 1996 p.62) and on some pastels by William Hoare and Francis Cotes, mainly dating to the 1740s. It has also been suggested, again without explanation, that he is the Gosset whom Hogarth mentioned in a letter of 1748 when advising on the framing of his huge painting for the Old Hall of Lincoln's Inn, Paul before Felix (DEFM).

Sources: Louise Lippincott, 'Arthur Pond's Journal of Receipts and Expenses, 1734-1750', Walpole Society, vol.54, 1991, p.323.

Isaac Gosset, Berwick St, London, probably by 1740, certainly by 1747-1774, 14 Edward St, Portman Square 1774-1797 or later. Framemaker and modeller of wax portraits.

Isaac Gosset (1713-99) is well known for his work for leading artists: Allan Ramsay, William Hoare, Thomas Gainsborough and probably William Hogarth. Like Gideon Gosset (qv) and Jacob Gosset (qv), Isaac was the son of Jean Gosset and Susanne D'Allain, Huguenots from the Channel Islands. He married Francoise Buisset in 1737, and they had five children christened at the Berwick St Huguenot church between 1740 and 1749, including a son Isaac, born 1745. Another brother, Pierre or Peter (b.1705) married Catherine DuFour in 1737.

Isaac Gosset may have worked in partnership with his brother, Gideon Gosset. James Guillet (qv) advertised in 1772 that he had been apprentice and foreman to Messrs Gosset in Berwick St.

In 1751 George Vertue praised Isaac Gosset's skills as a modeller of portrait profiles in wax and referred to frame carving as his original business, adding that 'he still undertakes carving for persons that are willing to pay him well for his labours - which can be managed under his care'. Vertue added that Isaac and his brother, whom he does not name, were brought up by his uncle, Matthew Gosset. His work as a modeller of wax profile portraits of distinguished public figures appears to range in date from the 1740s to the 1770s.

Isaac Gosset was appointed Joiner of the Great Chamber, 10 January 1774. This official position in the Royal household was abolished in 1782, but Gosset continued his role as the King's framemaker until his retirement at the age of seventy-two in 1785. In this capacity he supplied frames for Allan Ramsay's state portraits, 1772-84 (Millar 1969 p.94; Simon 1994 pp.446-7). In his will, dated 11 August 1797 and proved 7 December 1799, Isaac Gosset, of Edward St, Portman Square, made various bequests including to his niece, Mary Carter, daughter of Gideon Gosset.

Isaac Gosset supplied 'a scetch of a frame and a Carlomaratt pattern' to Robert Dingle in 1755 (Simon 1996 p.138, also p.144). 'Gosset' supplied Maratta frames to Edward Knight of Kidderminster in 1772 (Simon 1996 p.146). Isaac Gosset received a visit from Sir William Chambers, who was considering picture and mirror frames for the Duke of Marlborough in 1774 (Simon 1996 p.127).

Isaac Gosset had close associations with several artists. In the case of Allan Ramsay, there are payments from the artist to Gosset himself in 1770 and 1779, and other payments linking the artist or his clients with the framemaker in 1759 and 1767, and with 'Mr Gosset' in 1750 (Simon 1994 pp.446-7). For example, the Findlater London accounts, 1758-9, include reference to payment, presumably by Lady Findlater, to 'Allan Ramsay for my lord's picture and mine and for frames from Isaac Gossett' (National Archives of Scotland, GD248/939/5, Seafield papers).

The Gosset name crops up in Gainsborough's correspondence in 1762 and 1768, and there are payments specifically to Isaac Gosset in Gainsborough's bank account in 1762 and 1763 (see National Portrait Gallery website, Gainsborough and Picture Framing). Later, in 1788 one of the Gossets was a mourner at Thomas Gainsborough's funeral (see Sloman 2002 p.66).

Isaac Gosset was described by William Hoare as 'my framemaker' in 1763, when he received payment from Lady Egremont on the artist's behalf, and there are other references in the artist's correspondence to Gosset (Simon 1996 p.88). There are payments to 'Gosset' from Henry Hoare of Stourhead in 1753, apparently for the artist's profile pictures, and for gold leaf in 1769 (Wilts Record office, 383/6, Stourhead account book; Henry Hoare private account, information from Evelyn Newby, 1992). There are also references to 'Gosset' in William Hoare's letters to the Hon. Charles Yorke in 1762 and 1764 (British Library, Add MSS 35636 p.252, 35637 p.50) and to Richard Hurd in 1765 (John Kerslake, Early Georgian Portraits, 1977, p.292).

Isaac Gosset may also have worked for William Hogarth and Arthur Pond (see Gideon Gosset above).

Sources: 'Vertue Note Books', vol.3, Walpole Society, vol.22, 1934, p.160; Gunnis 1968 pp.175-6; E.J. Pyke, A Biographical Dictionary of Wax Modellers, Oxford, 1973; Evelyn Newby, William Hoare of Bath, R.A 1707-1792, exh. cat., Victoria Art Gallery, Bath, 1990, no.20a. The fullest account of the Gosset family can be found in Tessa Murdoch, 'Courtiers and Classic: The Gosset Family', Country Life, vol.177, 1985, pp.1282-3. See also Mary H. Gosset, 'A Family of Modellers in Wax', Huguenot Society, vol.3, 1892, pp.540-68.

Jacob Gosset (active 1726, died 1788). At Warwick St, Golden Square, London 1749. Carver and gilder.

Like Gideon Gosset (qv) and Isaac Gosset (qv), Jacob was the son of Jean Gosset and Susanne D'Allain, Huguenots from the Channel Islands. Jacob Gosset (1703-88) married Mary Fallet in 1727, having a daughter christened at St Martin-in-the-Fields in 1729, and remarried to Constance Farr in 1737, having two daughters christened at St James's Westminster, in 1738 and 1745. Gosset took John Le Fousey, perhaps a misreading for John Le Tousey as apprentice in 1726 (DEFM), John Clement Vincent in 1737 for a premium of £21 (Boyd) and Robert Samuel Tull (qv) in 1745 for £42. Jacob Gosset or one of his brothers used Tull as a subcontractor in the 1750s (Simon 1996 p.143). Jacob Gosset was buried in Hampstead churchyard.

Jacob Gosset supplied elaborate frames for full-length portraits of the Prince of Wales in 1735 and 1736 (Simon 1994 p.453, n.63), including for work by Jacopo Amigoni. He charged the Earl of Northampton £202.12s.4d for frames, lining and stretching pictures in 1760 (Beard 1981 p.261), but otherwise little is known of his output.

Sources: DEFM; Kimerly Rorschach, 'Frederick, Prince of Wales (1707-51) as Collector and Patron', Walpole Society, vol.55, 1983, p.36. The fullest account of the Gosset family can be found in Tessa Murdoch, 'Courtiers and Classic: The Gosset Family', Country Life, vol.177, 1985, pp.1282-3.

Philip Goyer, 21 Cumberland St, London 1778 or later, 41 Newman Street by 1785-1794 or later, 91 Newman Street by 1799. Carver and gilder.

Philip Goyer took out insurance with the Sun Fire Office in 1778 from 21 Cumberland St and in 1785 and 1786 from 41 Newman St. He is presumably the Philip Gowyer who was listed at 41 Newman St from 1790. 'Goyer' supplied frames for Samuel Whitbread for Southill, Bedfordshire in 1796 and 1798, including the very rich trophy frame for George Romney's Blind Milton Dictating to his Daughters (repr. Country Life 28 April 1994 p.67; Mitchell & Roberts 1996 pp. 342-3). Benjamin Goyer, carver and gilder, perhaps his son, was working at 41/42 Newman St, 1805-11. An organ builder, Bevington & Goyer, advertised from this address in 1808 (The Times 29 April 1808).

Sources: Guildhall Library: Records of Sun Fire Office, vol.266 no.402074, see DEFM, 331/508465, 338/521516.

Frederick Henry Grau (active 1888, died 1895), 570 Fulham Road, London 1889-1892. Picture framemaker.

A short-lived framemaker, Frederick Henry Grau (c.1859-1895) was married in 1888 in the Fulham registration district and died in 1895, age 36, in the Chelsea registration district. He was followed at his Fulham Road premises by another carver and gilder, Edwin B. Brown, in 1896.

Grau made frames for James McNeill Whistler, 1888-92, as the artist's correspondence reveals (online edition at Centre for Whistler Studies). He was first mentioned in letters which have been dated to September 1888. Later, in November 1890, Whistler requested Walford Graham Robertson, 'send for Grau and tell him to make you at once one of my beautiful new frames for the Valparaiso' (online edition, 09403). This letter refers to Crepuscule in Flesh Colour and Green: Valparaiso, 1866, Tate (see reference to an earlier frame for this work under Foord & Dickinson). In June 1892, Whistler told his New York dealer, E.G. Kennedy, 'my framemaker is Mr Grau, 570, Fulham Road... He is the only one who has the fine pattern of my frame' (Stoner 1997 p.111). In this letter (09685), Whistler wrote, 'You ought to have new frames made at once for The Westminster Bridge [The Last of Old Westminster, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston] and the Thames picture [Battersea Reach, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington DC] Tell him [Grau] that the gold must be the pale yellow soft gold like the gilding of my Mother's frame [Portrait of the Painter's Mother, Musée du Louvre, Paris]'

By 1895 Whistler had lost touch with Grau, writing to the art dealer, David Thompson, ' I wish now you would kindly find out for me, at once, Mr. Grau's address and send it to me here - You know Grau - used to be in the Fulham Road - You probably have his old address on your books at the time he was working for the Exhibition in Bond Street - It was said that he had given up frame making - but then again this was denied - and he has all my patterns'. But by this time Grau was dead.

A painting of 1891, Arrangement in Black: Reading (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, see Spassky 1985 p.396), is inscribed in black paint on the back of the frame, F.H. GRAU/ LONDON, and two other paintings are similarly inscribed, Brun et or: De race and The Boy in a Cloak (both Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery, Glasgow; information from Pamela Robertson 20 February 2007). Several watercolours have Grau's frame label including Grey and Silver: North Sea and Grey and pearl: Bank Holiday Banners (both Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge), Blue and Silver (Parrish Art Museum, Southampton, Long Island) and Mother and Child: The Pearl (Freer Gallery of Art, Washington DC).

Robert Gravel, see Jabez Benson

Joseph Green senr 1801-1840, Joseph Green junr 1840-1870, Joseph Green & Co 1870-1871. At 15 Charles St, Middlesex Hospital, London 1802-1825, 14 Charles St 1825-1871. Carvers and gilders, fine art packers.

This leading business claimed to have been established in 1801. It continued in operation under the founder, Joseph Green (d.1840), and his son, also Joseph Green (1808-1873?), framing the work of many artists, until about 1871 when the business was acquired by W.A. Smith (qv).

Joseph Green senr 1801-40: Joseph Green set up in business in Charles St, now Mortimer St, in the shadow of Middlesex Hospital. Little is known of his early years but he is probably the man who married Mary Byfield, possibly a relation of James Byfield (qv), in 1803 at St Mary's, Marylebone, and remarried in 1807 Mary Chuter at the same church, having children by her, Joseph in 1808 and Mary Hannah in 1810.

In 1825, Eugène Delacroix stayed with Green at 14 Charles St during his visit to London (information from Stephen Duffy, 14 December 2006). The same year Green 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 12 November 1838 and proved 30 May 1840, Joseph Green made bequests, including the lease of 15 Charles St to his then wife, Ann, his son, Joseph, and his daughter, Mary Hannah.

Joseph Green invoiced the 3rd Duke of Dorset for a large rich ornamental picture frame in 1822, perhaps for a portrait by George Sanders (Kent Record Office, U269, A252/33, information from National Trust files). He supplied a picture frame to the 3rd Earl of Egremont in 1830 (West Sussex Record Office, PHA/10628).

Green worked for a number of artists. Sir William Beechey was employing a 'Mr Green' in 1826, according to a report of a court case (The Times 5 December 1827). Green or his son undertook work for William Etty and Daniel Maclise in the 1830s and 1840s, for Etty in print framing and for the York exhibition (letter from Green junr, 3 October 1837, York City Library, Etty collection, no.147), for Maclise framing A Scene from Undine, 1843 (Royal Collection, see Millar 1992 no.486) and later acting as forwarding agent to Thomas Miller for another work by Maclise in 1856 (Royal Academy Library, 236/35/3/a-c).

Descriptions such as 'Greens French foliage' appear in the ledgers of John Smith (qv) from 1812 suggesting that Green was among the sources used by Smith for composition ornaments for his picture frames, whether as a subcontracting supplier or a source of moulds (see also Simon 1996 p.140).

Joseph Green junr 1840-70: The younger Joseph Green appears in the census, in 1851 at 14 Charles St, as a carver and gilder, age 43, born Marylebone, employing 11 men, in 1861 at the same address as a gilder employing ten men and an apprentice, and in 1871 apparently housed at the Camberwell lunatic asylum unless this reference is to another individual of the same age, name and parish of birth. In any case, in 1870 the business was trading as Joseph Green & Co, passing to William Augustine Smith (qv) by 1871. Joseph Green is perhaps the individual whose death at the age of 66 was recorded in the Camberwell registration district in December 1873.

Like his father, Green acted as forwarding agent for various provincial exhibiting societies and organisations. As early as 1836 the organisers of the 'York Exhibition of Paintings and Statuary' had selected Joseph Green junr as their agent (York Public Library, William Etty letters, nos 102-3). He acted for the Royal Manchester Institution for many years, his name being given in advertisements for their exhibition (e.g. The Art-Union January 1845 p.28, Liverpool Mercury 5 May 1866); there is a reference in George Price Boyce's diary to 'Green's man' returning a drawing from the Manchester Institute in 1869 (Virginia Surtees (ed.), The Diaries of George Price Boyce, R.W.S., 1980, p.49). He also acted for the Royal Scottish Academy, as is evident from correspondence concerning their exhibitions in 1844 and 1846 (York Public Library, William Etty letters, no.274, dated 5 January 1844; Royal Scottish Academy, correspondence files, dated 4 February and 12 May 1846). In 1852 and subsequent trade directories, the business was listed as a carving & gilding manufactory and establishment for packing works of art. Green's back workshops were consumed by fire in 1866 (The Times 24 May 1866).

It was the younger Green who established strong links with the Pre-Raphaelites in the 1850s, working for William Holman Hunt, Dante Gabriel Rossetti and Ford Madox Brown, as well as for other artists.

Holman Hunt used Green as his framemaker, possibly from 1852, but certainly from 1854 for the frame of The Awakening Conscience, 1853-4 (Tate), one of his earlier symbolic settings. It retains a label on the back, 'Joseph Green, 14 Charles Street, Plate Glass Dealer, Carver Gilder, Looking Glass and Fancy Wood Frame Maker', and Hunt's letter to Thomas Combe survives, in which he sets out the inscription he wanted at the bottom of the frame, and even the colours in which Green was to paint it. He wrote in a similar vein in 1855 to Combe, 'I sent you a letter enclosing some sketches and particulars for Mr Green... for the frame of the Scapegoat' (The Scapegoat, 1854-5, 1856, Lady Lever Art Gallery, see Bennett 1988 p.72). Green produced the frames for both versions of The Finding of the Saviour in the Temple (Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, framed 1859; Sudley House, Liverpool, framed 1865). These frames are reproduced in the section, 'Frames', in Bronkhurst 2006, see vol.2, pp.302-3, 314-5, also pp.304-5, 331-3). Hunt appears to have employed Foord & Dickinson (qv) in the early 1860s, but used Green again in 1869, and gave work to W.A. Smith (qv) when he took over the firm.

Rossetti used Green in the 1850s and 1860s, referring to the framemaker as early as 1853 but by 1868 writing of the 'wiseacre who now rules the destinies of "Green's"... His ways are of the shifty and mysterious order' (Fredeman, letters 53.6, 68.119, etc). Green provided a frame for Rossetti's early pencil Self-portrait, 1847 (National Portrait Gallery), with label, 'J. GREEN, Carver and Gilder, 14 Charles Street, Middx Hosptl. Established 1801'. He is documented as framing Sibylla Palmifera in 1868 (Lady Lever Art Gallery, see Bennett 1988 p.171) and from Rossetti's letters it appears that he also framed Ecce Ancilla (Tate) in 1853 (Fredeman, letter 53.7), as well as The Beloved (Tate), Tibullus (private collection), St George and Princess Sabra, 1862 (Tate, see Fredeman, letter 62.80), and Portrait of Mrs Leathart, 1863 (private collection, see Fredeman, letter 63.16).

Madox Brown wrote in 1863 that he had encouraged Green 'to employ all or any of my patterns' when reframing King Lear (Tate, see The Pre-Raphaelites, exh. cat., Tate Gallery, 1984, no.16). Later in 1872 he recommended that his portrait, Henry and Millicent Fawcett (National Portrait Gallery), be framed in a Venetian pattern, a variation on a Watts frame, by Messrs Green & Co (Simon 1996, p.174, fig.110). Green may also have worked simultaneously on the three frames for Burne-Jones's triptych, The Adoration of the kings and shepherds (c.1860-61, frame 1862/3, Tate), the design of which is very close to that of Ford Madox Brown's King Lear.

Some of G.F. Watts's work was framed by Green. The business's label as 'J. GREEN. Carver and Gilder' can be found on the frame now on Watts's Portrait of Garibaldi, 1864 (Watts Gallery, Compton), and a later label, as 'JOSEPH GREEN & CO., CARVING AND GILDING MANUFACTORY' on the enriched Watts frame of Lady Constance Lothian and her sisters, 1862 (Earl of Ancram).

Green framed Simeon Solomon's Dawn, 1871 (Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, repr. Stephen Wildman, Visions of Love and Life: Pre-Raphaelite Art from the Birmingham Collection, exh. cat., 1995, p.274).

Sources: This entry contains much information kindly supplied by Lynn Roberts.

Samuel Green, see Henry Critchfield

Green & Stone 1927-1932, Green & Stone Ltd from 1932. At 258a King's Road SW3 1928-1939, 259 King's Road from 1940. Artists' materials suppliers and picture framemakers.

See British artists' suppliers.

Grundy & Fox by 1828-1831, John Clowes Grundy 1832, Grundy & Goadsby by 1836-1838, John Clowes Grundy 1838-1867, Grundy & Smith 1868-1903 or later. At 25 St Ann's Square, Manchester by 1828-1829 or later, 4 Exchange St by 1832-1903 or later. Carvers, gilders, barometer and looking glass makers, later printsellers, publishers and picture dealers.

John Clowes Grundy (1806-1867) was a leading Manchester printseller in the mid-19th century. He was christened at St Peter, Bolton Le Moors, Lancashire in 1806. Grundy's partnership with Charles Fox, trading as Grundy & Fox, sometimes described as Fox & Grundy, carvers and gilders, stationers, fancy stationers, printsellers and artists' colourmen, at 25 St Anne's Square, Manchester in 1828, was dissolved in May 1831 (DEFM; London Gazette 31 May 1831). Charles Fox went on to trade independently as an artists' colourman. As Grundy & Fox, the business advertised as a 'Fancy Repository of Drawing Materials Carvers and Gilders, Colourmen to Artists, Printsellers and Opticians', offering to clean, line and restore pictures, and featuring 'An extensive Collection of Modern Engravings, Prints for Scrap Books &c, Works of Art as soon as Published' (Pigot & Son's General Directory of Manchester, Salford &c for 1829).

Grundy's subsequent partnership with Charles Goadsby, trading as Grundy & Goadsby, was dissolved in March 1838 (London Gazette 6 March 1838). The business had an account with the artists' colourmen, Roberson, 1828-1903, successively as Grundy & Fox, 1828-31, J.C. Grundy and, from c.1868, Grundy & Smith (Woodcock 1997).

In 1853 Grundy was listed as 'print-seller and publisher, carver and gilder, artists' colourman, fancy stationer, picture and plate glass dealer, and repository of arts', and in 1863 as 'ancient and modern print seller to Her Majesty, picture frame manufacturer, artists' colourman, dealer in pictures, water-colour drawings and articles of vertu'. Grundy died in London in June 1867 at the age of 60. Through Christie's, his executors held a sale of his modern paintings and drawings and engravings (The Times 1 November 1867), including his private collection removed from Cliff House, Higher Broughton.

Grundy's frame trade label, as found on William Scott's Robert Moffat, 1842 (National Portrait Gallery), described the business as 'J.C. Grundy. Carver, Gilder & Printseller To The Queen. Repository of Arts, 4, Exchange Street, Manchester'. Grundy & Smith's label is found on Andrew MacCallum's The River of Life, 1850 (Manchester Art Gallery, information from Lynn Roberts).

Guild of Handicraft 1888-1898, Guild of Handicraft Ltd 1898-1908. At 34 Commercial St, London E 1888-1891, Essex House, 401 Mile End Road 1892-1902, Chipping Campden, Gloucestershire 1902-1907, shop at 16a Brook St, Mayfair 1899-1909.

The catalyst of the English Arts and Crafts Movement, the designer Charles Robert Ashbee (1863-1942), set up the Guild and School of Handicraft in 1888, which initially made furniture, metalwork, and painted decorations. By 1892 the Guild had workshops at Essex House, Mile End Road and later opened a shop in Brook St, Mayfair. The description of the business in London directories changes from cabinet makers, to house furnishers in 1899 and to art metal workers and cabinet makers from 1900. In 1902 the workshops were moved to Chipping Campden in the Cotswolds, but by 1907 the Guild closed due to lack of profitability in a saturated market for artisan crafts. It was resolved to wind up the Guild of Handicraft Ltd in 1908 (London Gazette 6 October 1908).

C.R. Ashbee was listed as Hon. Director of the Guild in 1890 and 1891, Frank Prout as Secretary in 1892 and 1893, and William James Osborn as manager from 1900 to 1902 in directories. The Guild of Handicraft Ltd advertised as an art school in The Year's Art 1906 with Ashbee as 'Consulting Architect and Designer'.

John Williams, one of Ashbee's Guild workers, made repoussé copper frames to William Holman Hunt's design for the artist's May Morning on Magdalen Tower, both the large version at the Lady Lever Art Gallery, Port Sunlight, and the smaller one at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery; the frames were exhibited on their own in 1889 and 1890 respectively (both repr. Wildman 1995 no.114; Brockhurst 2006, vol.2, pp.326-7). A parcel-gilt wooden frame for the photogravure of Hunt's Triumph of the Innocents was also produced by Guild workers, c.1888 (Manchester Art Gallery, information from Lynn Roberts).

Sources: Alan Crawford, 'Ashbee, Charles Robert (1863­1942)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford, 2004, vol.2, pp.601-4.

James Guillet, Richmond, Surrey before 1772, Bath 1772, London by 1790. Carver and gilder, picture framemaker.

James Guillet may be the man of this name who set up in business as a picture framer in Bath in 1772, advertising as 'Carver and Gilder, from Richmond in Surry (formerly Apprentice and Foreman to Messrs. Gosset's, in Berwick Street, London)', selling 'all Sorts of Picture and Glass Frames, Carlo Marat's, Italian and other Mouldings' (Sloman 2002 p.66). He was in London by 1790 when his daughter Mary Henrietta was baptised at St Marylebone.

In his will dated 1 May 1828 and proved 27 June 1833, James Guillet describes himself as formerly a carver and gilder. He refers to his wife, Frances, and appoints as executors his son, naming him as Charles James Guillet, his daughter, and his friend, Thomas Maxfield Temple (qv). Before administration of the estate could be granted, his son, actually named James Charles Guillet (qv), had to complete an affidavit that he was indeed the only son of the deceased.

James Charles Guillet 1819-1855, James Charles Guillet junr 1856-1897. At 5 Hollen St, Soho, London 1819-1820, 4 Hollen St 1823-1839, Silver St, Kensington Gravel Pits 1838-1839, 42 Bedford Place, Kensington 1846-1864, 8 Bedford Place 1865-1867, 71 Bedford Gardens, Kensington 1868-1897. Carvers and gilders, picture framemakers.

James Charles Guillet (1796-1878) was christened at St Anne's Soho, the son of James Guillet (qv) and his wife, Frances; he married Mary Hawker at St Marylebone in 1821, and a son, also named James Charles Guillet was christened at St Anne's Soho in 1824. However, it is possible that this son died when young because the framemaker, James Charles Guillet junr (qv), appears to have been born about 1833.

In 1825, J.C. Guillet 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 1839 he acted as assignee for his father's friend, the framemaker, Thomas Maxfield Temple (qv), who had been made bankrupt; Guillet's address was given as Silver St, Kensington Gravel-pits (The Times 17 October 1839). In the 1851 census, he was listed as a gilder and picture framemaker, age 55, at 42 Bedford Place in Kensington, with two sons who were gilders, James age 18 and George age 16. He died in Kensington in 1878.

James Charles Guillet junr (c.1833-1901?), his son, would appear to have taken over the business in 1856; he continued to be described as 'junior' in trade directory listings until as late as 1882. As James C. Guillet junr, carver and gilder, he had an account with the artists' colourmen, Roberson, 1862-78, from addresses in Bedford Place and Bedford Gardens (Woodcock 1997). He was listed at 71 Bedford Garden in 1881 and succeeding censuses, in 1881 as a carver and gilder, age 48, employing two men and in 1891 as a picture framemaker and carver. He retired from business in 1897 but continued to live at 71 Bedford Gardens, appearing there in the Post Office London Directory, and in the 1901 census as living on his 'own means', but not thereafter.

James Charles Guillet senr framed a picture by Augustus Callcott for Sir John Soane in 1830, The Passage Point (Sir John Soane's Museum). James Charles Guillet junr, rather than his father, seems to have worked for the marine painter, E.W. Cooke, 1869-78, and apparently for William Mulready, who wrote to the collector, John Sheepshanks in 1857 concerning a frame made by 'Guillett'. Guillet framed John Phillip's Princess Beatrice, 1860 (Royal Collection, see Millar 1992 no.550). The artist, Philip Hermogenes Calderon, recommended Guillet to the National Gallery in 1880 when it was seeking a new framemaker (Simon 1996 p.133).

Sources: E.W. Cooke ledger 1833-78, Royal Academy Library; see also John Munday, Edward William Cooke 1811-1880, Woodbridge, 1996, especially pp.228, 375-9; Martin Royalton-Kisch, 'An Archive of Letters to John Sheepshanks', Walpole Society, vol.66, 2004, p.245.

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