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.

Kemp & Co, 9 Holden Terrace, Pimlico, London SW 1877-1889, 203 Victoria St SW1 1890-1937, 28 Buckingham Palace Road SW1 1937-1940. Kemp & Co (Victoria) Ltd, 28 Buckingham Palace Road 1941-1991 or later, no longer listed 1998. Artists' colourmen, carvers and gilders, fine art dealers, artists' brush manufacturers; by 1991 picture cleaners and restorers.

See British artists' suppliers.

Daniel Kennedy, 7 Old Lisle St (also listed as New Lisle St), Leicester Square, London 1811, 51 Rathbone Place, Oxford St 1813-1817. Carver and gilder.

A short-lived business, which advertised looking glasses, manufactured on the premises and, for artists, 'a large assortment of plain and ornamental picture frames in the various sizes of canvas' (The Times 19 December 1815, 4 January 1816). Kennedy is perhaps the Daniel Kennedy who married Ann Moore in 1804 and had seven children between 1805 and 1820, christened at St Anne's, Soho.

Kesson & Macdonald by 1873-1877, John Kesson 1877-1915 or later. At 53 St Nicholas St, Aberdeen by 1875-1879 or later, 28 Diamond St by 1884-1915 or later. Carvers and gilders, picture framemakers.

John Kesson (c.1840-1921) can be traced in Aberdeen in successive censuses: in 1871 as a cabinetmaker, age 31, in 1881 as a carver and gilder employing five men and four boys, in 1891 as a carver and gilder and in 1901 as a picture framer, born Aberdeen, with a wife and two children, including a son, John E. Kesson, age 20. His will was reported in 1921 (The Scotsman 19 May 1921).

John Kesson's partnership with Robert Macdonald, trading as Kesson & Macdonald, 53 St Nicholas St, was dissolved in August 1877 (Edinburgh Gazette 31 August 1877). The business had an account with the artists' colourmen, Roberson, 1873-1908, trading as Kesson & Macdonald and then as John Kesson, from 53 St Nicholas St and 28 Diamond St (Woodcock 1997). On their trade label, Kesson & Macdonald described their business as 'Carvers & Gilders, Looking Glass, Picture Frame and Cornice Manufacturers', also offering artists' colours and drawing materials, pictures cleaned, regilding etc.

The business framed various works by the portrait painter, Sir George Reid (Simon 1996 p.177), including Samuel Smiles, 1870s (National Portrait Gallery, label of Kesson & MacDonald), William Forbes Skene, 1888, and Samuel Smiles, 1891 (both Scottish National Portrait Gallery, label of John Kesson). John Kesson supplied the frame for Arthur Melville's A Street Scene, from 28 Diamond St (see Simon 1997 p.431).

Frank William King, 18 Cleveland St, Fitzroy Square, London 1880-1889, 24 Great Titchfield St from 1890. Artists' colourman; picture framemaker from 1892.

See British artists' suppliers.

John Kingham & Co, 26 Alfred Place West, South Kensington, London 1892-1893. Artists' colourmen, fine art publishers, picture framemakers.

See British artists' suppliers.

Thomas Kingham 1799-1808, Thomas Kingham & Son 1808-1828. At 2 Long Acre, London 1799-1828. Painter and gilder.

Thomas Kingham (d.1817) may be the individual of this name recorded as an apprentice to Edward Crace of the Painters' Company in 1764, and he may be the Thomas Kingham whose wife, Mary, gave birth to eight children between 1779 and 1795, christened at St Martin-in-the-Fields, including Thomas (b.1784) and George (b.1788). In his will, dated 3 December and proved 30 December 1817, Thomas Kingham 'the elder', painter and gilder of St Martin-in-the-Fields, names his sons as George and Thomas. Thomas Kingham, painter, took out insurance with the Sun Fire Office from 2 Long Acre in 1812, and it was presumably his son of the same name who took out insurance in 1818 and 1825 (Guildhall Library: Records of Sun Fire Office, vols 459, 477, 504).

Kingham framed the Raphael cartoons at Hampton Court for George IV (W.H. Pyne, The History of Royal Residences, vol.2, 1819, pp.77-8), and carried out work repairing and regilding picture and mirror frames at Hatfield House, Hertfordshire, at a cost of more than £150 in 1804 (DEFM). An earlier framemaker, also Kingham, worked from Long Acre, claiming to be framemaker to George III in 1763 (Heal 1972 p.100).

George Kirk, see Ashworth, Kirk & Co

Martin Knapp, see Bielefeld & Knapp

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