British picture framemakers, 1630-1950 - D
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.
Resources and bibliography
*Abraham Dallain, Berwick St, London by 1774 and subsequently, 7 St Anne's Court, Westminster 1799. Carver and gilder.
Abraham Dallain (c.1727-1803) was christened in 1727 at St Peter, Jersey, the third son of Jean Dallain, who had left Normandy to settle in Jersey in about 1687 as a Huguenot refugee. His mother was Madelaine Le Capelain. The family had close ties with the Gossets over several generations. In 1748, he witnessed the will of Jane Esther Gosset, widow of Matthew Gosset. He married Jeanne Gosset, daughter of Jean Gosset, in 1750 at St James Westminster and they had children Anne in 1752 and Francoise in 1754, for whom Isaac and Gideon Gosset were godfathers (Minet 1921 pp.21-2). His wife died in childbirth in 1755, giving birth to a daughter, Catherine. This daughter married Richard Harding in 1773, who went into partnership with Isaac Dallain (see below); she died in 1791.
Abraham Dallain appears in a Parliamentary election poll book in 1774 (DEFM). In his will, made 29 May 1799 and proved 14 July 1803, Abraham Dallain, carver and gilder, late of Berwick St and now of 7 St Anne's Court, made bequests to his five grandchildren, of whom one, Abraham Harding was named as an executor.
Sources: H.G. Coutanche, ‘The Dallain Family of Jersey', Channel Islands Family History Journal, vol.2., no.28, 1985, pp.291-301 (kindly drawn to my attention by Alex Glendinning). For abbreviations, see Resources and bibliography.
*Isaac Dallain by 1768-1782, Dallain & Harding by 1782-1785 or later, Richard Harding by 1789-1794. At the King's Arms, 7 Berwick St, Soho, London 1782-1794. Carvers and gilders.
Isaac Dallain (c.1730-1791 or later), younger brother of Abraham Dallain (see above), was in London by 1761 when he acted as godfather at the baptism of Jacques Dibon (Publications of the Huguenot Society, vol.29, 1926, p.175). He is recorded in partnership with R. Harding at 7 Berwick St, 1782, as 'successors to Mr. Gosset' (DEFM), but they do not appear to have achieved the same success as Isaac or Gideon Gosset (qv). Harding can be identified with Richard Harding, who married Catherine Dallain in 1773, and subsequently traded independently. By 1790 Harding was described in London directories as carver and gilder to the King, and on his trade card, 1791, as 'Carver and Gilder to Her Majesty'. He is not recorded after 1794.
Isaac Dallain supplied Sir Gilbert Heathcote, 1768-72, with various looking glass frames (for fuller details, see DEFM). He supplied a frame for Ozias Humphrey's portrait of Mr Austin for the 3rd Duke of Dorset in 1782, the address on the receipt being given as the King's Arms, Berwick St (Kent Record Office, U269, A243/12, information from National Trust files). There is a reference in Joseph Farington's diary in July 1793 to 'Dalling, the Frame makers sale', but it is not known whether this links to one of the Dallain brothers (Farington, vol.1 p.6).
For abbreviations, see Resources and bibliography.
William Davis 1862-1895, W. Davis & Sons 1896-1915 or later. At 188 Great Lister St, Birmingham 1862-1863 or later, 1 Cromwell St by 1865-1867, 16 Steelhouse Lane 1867-1875, 5 Edgbaston St (‘Five Doors from the Bull Ring') by 1875-1915 or later, 6 Edgbaston St by 1880-1915 or later. Carvers, gilders and picture framemakers, later wholesale picture frame manufacturers, window blind makers.
The son of George Davis, William Davis was apparently a hairdresser before trading as a picture framemaker in Birmingham at 188 Great Lister St in 1862. In 1868 he was already advertising the largest stock of picture frames in Birmingham, including maple, gilt, fancy veneered and white mouldings (Birmingham Daily Post 17 September and 17 December 1868). In 1875, following his removal to 5 Edgbaston St, he advertised that his old shop in Great Lister St was to be let (Birmingham Daily Post 10 March 1875). In 1883, in a newspaper article describing his business, he was said to employ about 40 hands during the season and to have an export trade with America, France and Germany (Birmingham Owl 8 June 1883, accessed online through '19th Century UK periodicals').
By 1895 the business was listed as picture frame, glass tablet and show card maker. William Robert Davis, Edgbaston St, picture frame manufacturer, is recorded as taking out a mortgage on 29 January 1907 (Dudley Archives and Local History Service, 8469/1/5). The business occupied other premises at one time or another including 21 Bishop St in 1895, 53 Moseley St from 1896 to 1900 or later and 26 Freeman St in 1910.
In his trade catalogue of the 1880s, William Davis advertised white fancy mouldings, mounted ready for gilding (including Alhambra pattern and Spike pattern), best gold leaf frames in various patterns (offering a discount for customers taking large frames with yellow rather than gold sides), Rhenish mouldings, 9 feet lengths (in walnut, ‘Single Wavy', ‘Wavy and Walnut', reeded gilt etc, ‘equal to the gold... of a superior class to the German make'), German mouldings (referring to the ‘now extensive use of the German Gilt and Imitation Mouldings for cheap Picture Frames'), rosewood and maple mouldings (veneered on the edge, in 12 feet lengths), stained mouldings and various ready-made frames and Oxford frames (W. Davis's Corporation Picture Frame, Moulding and Window Blind Works, trade catalogue, 10pp).
John Davey, Colquitt St, Liverpool W 1886 (founded 1844). Carver and gilder. Davey & Son, 44 Duke St, Liverpool, also Manchester. A candidate for the next edition of this Directory, to include additional 19th and 20th-century framemakers. Contact Jacob Simon at jsimon@npg.org.uk
Robert Davy by 1811-1843, Charles Davy 1843-1863. At 16 Wardour St, London by 1811-1823, 83 Newman St 1822-1862, 85 Newman St 1863. Carvers and gilders, artists' colourmen, picture restorers.
For Robert Davy (c.1771-1841 or later) and his son, Charles, see British artists' suppliers on the National Portrait Gallery website.
Benjamin Davyson, see Matthew Goodricke
*John Deare, active 1766-1794. At Tyburn Road, Walcott, Bath 1768, Kingsmead St, Bath from 1766, 9 Kingsmead St 1794. Carver and gilder, picture framemaker.
John Deare is known to have been working in Kingsmead St in Bath from 1766 (Sloman 2002 p.68). It is not easy to establish details of his career. John Deare of Tyburn Road, Walcott, carver, gilder and picture framemaker, and his wife Sarah, were parties to a lease in November 1768 (Hertfordshire Archives, DE/Pr/77238-77239). In May 1771 Gainsborough paid Deare 46 guineas (Sloman 2002 pp.68, 207, see also Gainsborough and picture framing on the National Portrait Gallery website). Deare advertised in 1782 and 1794, from the original Looking Glass House (Bath Chronicle 31 January 1782, 13 February 1794). The business of F. Deare & Son was recorded in King's Mead St and Queen Square, Bath, as carvers, gilders and picture framemakers, 1787-91 (DEFM). John Deare died in 1794, bequeathing his house in Kingsmead St to his wife Sarah, and referring to his son James Deare and brother Phillip Deare in his will, made 26 May and proved 10 September 1794.
The business became Deare & Hill, and then in the 1830s John Marshman Hill, for whom see British picture restorers on the National Portrait Gallery website.
For abbreviations, see Resources and bibliography.
**John de Critz, Shoe Lane, St Andrew's Holborn, London by 1607-c.1637, St Martin's Lane c.1637-1642. Serjeant Painter, gilder, picture restorer.
John de Critz (c.1552-1642) was appointed Serjeant Painter in 1605. His Antwerp parentage, his life and work, his three wives and 16 children, are traced by Mary Edmond, to whom this account is indebted. His name is variously spelt in contemporary documents, including de Creete, de Creets, de Creetz, de Crete, de Cretz, de Crite, de Crittes, Decreake, Decreeke, Decreetes, Decreets, Decretz.
‘Johan de Creetz' was buried on 14 March 1642 (Edmond 1980 p.155, n.414). In his lengthy will, made 27 February and proved 7 March 1642, ‘John Decrette', Serjeant Painter of St Martin-in-the-Fields, describing himself as sickly and full of years, made provision for his family and for the poor of the parish of St Andrew Holborn, ‘where I lived thirty yeares' (transcribed in full in C.H. Collins Baker, Lely and the Stuart Portrait Painters, 1912, pp.118-9).
The focus here is on De Critz's activities in painting and supplying picture frames, rather than on his extensive decorative work for the royal palaces, his portraits of which there are three by or attributed to him in the National Portrait Gallery, or on his work in restoring paintings for which see British picture restorers on the National Portrait Gallery website.
For James I, his work included ‘painting of three frames and making a picture of King Edward the sixt nowe remayning at whitehall' at a cost of £18 in 1608 (Erna Auerbach, Tudor Artists, 1954, p.114, n.3, quoting E351/543, m.198).
For Charles I, John de Critz was responsible for painting and gilding numerous frames, many of which had been carved by Zacharie Taylor (qv). For Whitehall Palace in 1631/2 he painted a large picture frame of 37 feet in a dark timber colour and gilded its moulding (Edmond 1980 p.173). For St James's Palace the same year, his work on picture frames included painting in a dark lute colour with gilt moulding, two large frames, each 12 by 7 feet, for two great pieces by Palma, David and Goliath and Saul's Conversion. He also painted in a dark walnut-tree colour the frames, each 6 by 4 feet, for the set of Titian Emperors at £3 each, including oil gilding the broad carved sight edge, the mask heads, festoons, draperies, greater and lesser flowers, greater and lesser scrolls and the edges between the flutes (Edmond 1980 p.174).
Elsewhere, ‘John de Creete' painted a full-length portrait of Viscount Cranborne for presentation to Sir Walter Cope in 1611 and he was paid £2 for ‘painting, gilding and rebesking [arabesquing] all over' its great frame, 8 feet high by 6 feet (Auerbach 1971 p.79).
Sources: Croft-Murray 1962 pp.198-9; Edmond 1980, especially pp.144-6, 149-52, 155-62, 167-76. For abbreviations, see Resources and bibliography.
Walter Leslie Deighton, see Alfred J. Mucklow
William Dickinson, see George Foord
*Doig, McKechnie & Davies 1857-1884, Doig & McKechnie 1885-1895, Doig, Wilson & Wheatley 1895-1957. At 60 George St, Edinburgh 1857, 69 George St 1857-1861, 89 George St 1862-1875, 90 George St 1876-1957. Picture dealers, carvers and gilders, picture restorers and printsellers.
This leading Edinburgh business later claimed to have been established in 1840 (The Scotsman 16 December 1912). Henry Doig (1818-1901) was a partner in the firm of Doig, McKechnie & Davies, carvers, gilders and plate glass merchants, which was formed from three separate businesses. Henry Doig, carver and gilder at 6 South St James's St, joined with McKechnie & Davies, 69 George St and 10 Calton Hill, to form Doig, McKechnie & Davies, listed as carvers, gilders and picture liners at 69 George St and 10 Calton Hill in 1857. William McKechnie had been previously listed as a picture framemaker at 10 Calton Hill in 1855. In 1875 Doig, McKechnie & Davies advertised a sale of surplus stock prior to removal to new premises at 90 George St (The Scotsman 14 December 1875). Doig, McKechnie and Davies cleaned and restored 31 portraits of continental kings, princes and leaders, in the Lothian collection in 1882 (National Archives of Scotland, GD40/8/459, Lothian Muniments).
Henry Doig can be traced in most Edinburgh censuses. In 1841 he was listed at 4 Little King St as a journeyman carver and gilder, in 1861 at 12 Queen St, as a carver and gilder, age 43, born Callender, Perthshire, employing 18 men, 11 boys and one clerk, in 1871 at Duddingstone, as a carver and gilder, age 58, born Callander, Stirlingshire, in 1881 at 90a George St, in 1891 at Portobello, as a picture restorer, age 73, widowed, and in 1901, at Portobello, as a carver and gilder, age 83, by now remarried, with two great grandsons in the household, Henry and Laurence Brown, ages 20 and 17, the one apprenticed as a lithographic artist, the other as a carver and gilder.
Sole partner by 1895, Doig dissolved the firm of Doig & McKechnie, selling his stock-in-trade to Thomas Wilson and Benjamin Wheatley, who traded as Doig, Wilson & Wheatley, fine art dealers (Edinburgh Gazette 3 May 1895). Benjamin Wheatley appears in the 1901 census as a fine art dealer, age 36, born in Edinburgh.
In 1895, Doig, Wilson & Wheatley advertised as picture restorers, printsellers and publishers (The Scotsman 29 May 1895), also referring to ‘All Varieties of Designs in Framing', and mentioning the removal of T. Wilson from 121 to 90 George St. The following month the business advertised the sale of surplus stock owing to the amalgamation of the two firms (The Scotsman 26 June 1895), with a further auction being held at the end of the year, of ‘the surplus stock of the firms of Messrs Doig & M'Kechnie and Mr Thomas Wilson' (The Scotsman 20 November 1895). In 1897 the business opened a branch establishment at 26 Forrest Road (The Scotsman 26 July 1897). The business advertised as picture restorers, printsellers and publishers to His Majesty in 1912, offering ‘Pictures examined, reported on, lined and restored. Collections valued, arranged and hung... Artistic Framing...' (Royal Scottish Academy, exh.cat., 1912). It continued to advertise 'artistic framing' (The Year's Art 1928).
Picture framing work: Henry Doig acted as Sir Joseph Noel Paton's framemaker, colourman and dealer, as is apparent from the artist's journals (Noel-Paton 1990 pp.79, 116). The extent of his involvement is clear from entries concerning his painting, The Good Shepherd, 1876 (ex-coll. Haydon Hare), for which he not only supplied materials and framed the finished work but dealt with the sale and exhibition of the work, and acted as an intermediary with Queen Victoria who wished to have a replica of the work (Noel-Paton 1990 pp.38-40, 98-9). The Queen went on to commission an altarpiece for Osbourne, 1884-5, with framing designed by the artist and made by Doig (the altarpiece now belongs to Anmer parish church). Other works by Noel Paton which Doig framed include Sir Galahad, 1879 (Christie's 11 June 1993 lot 132; repr. Noel-Paton 1990 pl.1).
Doig, Wilson & Wheatley's label, whether as framemaker or as dealer, can be found on the plain gilt oak moulding frame on Count Girolamo Nerli's Robert Louis Stevenson, 1892 (Scottish National Portrait Gallery).
Sources: M.H. Noel-Paton and J.P. Campbell, Noel Paton 1821-1901, 1990 (quoting entries linking the artist to Doig, 1875-95). For abbreviations, see Resources and bibliography.
Reginald Dolman, Reginald Dolman & Son, see James Criswick
*Aitken Dott 1842-1879, Aitken Dott & Son 1880-1984, Aitken Dott Ltd 1984-1988, Aitken Dott plc from 1988. At Lady Lawson St, Edinburgh 1842, 12 South St David St 1844-1847, 16 South St David St 1846-1863, 14-16 South St David St 1863-1874, 26 South Castle St or Castle St 1874-1982, 94 George St 1982-1993, 16 Dundas St, EH3 6HZ from 1993. Carvers and gilders, framemakers, artists' colourmen, from the 1890s also fine art dealers and picture restorers.
Aitken Dott (1815-92) set up in business in Edinburgh in 1842. He married Jane MacOmish in 1848. He was recorded in the 1841 census as a journeyman gilder, living at the home of his father, the stone mason, Henry Dott, in 1851 as a master carver and gilder at his father-in-law's address, 74 Lauriston Place, employing six men, in 1871 at the same address, employing 11 men and five boys, and in 1881 at 24 Castle St, employing 13 men and five boys. His son, Peter, one of six children, was recorded in 1881 as a carver and gilder at the same address. The business had an account with the artists' suppliers, Roberson, 1852-1908, and is recorded in the Roberson ledgers as taking over that of John Douglas Smith (qv) in 1887.
In 1890 Aitken Dott & Son advertised the variety of their frame styles, and their price ranges, giving proportionate costs, including: French (New process, rich in design) at 160s, Own Hand-made (of durable quality and of purest gold) at 100s, Manufactured (of good quality and best gold) at 80s, Dutch Metal Imitations (suitable for temporary purposes) at 40s and Oak and Black Mouldings, also offering to line and clean pictures, and featuring artists' materials, in particular as agents for Dr Fr. Schoenfeld's Celebrated Genuine Oil and Water Colours (Post Office directory). In 1894 the business advertised that it had cleaned pictures at Inveraray Castle, Blair Castle, Tyninghame, Oxenford and elsewhere (Glasgow Herald 6 October 1894). An agent for Cambridge colours, 1897, made by Madderton & Co Ltd (qv), Aitken Dott advertised in Madderton's literature as ‘Artists' Colourmen & Importers of French & German Materials'.
Aitken Dott's son, Peter McOmish Dott (1856-c.1935), set up ‘The Scottish Gallery', now the oldest commercial gallery in Scotland, at 127a George St in 1896 (The Scotsman 16 October 1896), trading as McOmish Dott & Co, before relocating to 26 Castle St in 1901 or before (The Year's Art 1897, 1901). He displayed work by many Scottish painters, including the Scottish Colourists and Edinburgh School artists.
In 1908 Peter McOmish Dott entered into partnership with George Proudfoot (see Sources below, NRA 22835, item 4/5). In 1915 Proudfoot apparently took over managing the business, for a time in partnership with Duncan MacDonald, and then in the 1920s the business entered into an arrangement with the Glasgow dealer, Alex Reid, whereby they shared profits on paintings by certain living artists (Frances Fowle, Impressionism & Scotland, exh.cat., National Gallery of Scotland, 2008, p.137). In 1928 Proudfoot as manager went into a further three-year partnership with Peter McOmish Dott as owner (National Library of Scotland, acc.10421, item 8).
By 1930 Proudfoot was recorded as sole partner, as indicated on the business's invoice for work done on the frame for Sir James Guthrie's Statesmen of the Great War, 1924-30 (National Portrait Gallery). Following Proudfoot's death in about 1939 or later, the business was run by his wife until acquired in about 1955 by William J. Macaulay (d.1975) (information from William Jackson). In 1968 there were 40 staff and managers in five separate departments in the business, affectionately known as ‘Dott's', consisting of the Gallery, Architectural Materials and Books, Art and Graphic Materials, Framing, Prints and Restoration, and General Administration (information from William Jackson).
By 1975 the proprietor was William Jackson (b.1943). In 1986 Aitken Dott plc sold its interests in framing and artists' materials to concentrate on The Scottish Gallery. A London branch of The Scottish Gallery was set up in 1988, becoming William Jackson Gallery Ltd in 1991. The business now describes itself as a leading dealer in contemporary and 20th-century Scottish painting and contemporary objects (The Scottish Gallery), with Guy Peploe as managing director. More work needs to be done on the surviving company records (see below) to elucidate the history and work of this long-lived business.
Picture framing work: As picture framers, Dott's work for institutions included supplying a ‘richly gilt & burnished single swept frame to drawing' to the National Gallery of Scotland in 1895 for David Wilkie's Abbotsford Family, including a plate glass, lettering the frame's slip with the artist's name and the picture's subject and hanging the picture at the Gallery at a cost of £4.5s.6d. Aristocratic clients included Lord Belhaven (a picture in a Murthly moulding, 1875), the Earl of Haddington (a half-length laurel frame in 1875) and the Earl of Stair.
Dott's work for artists was wide ranging. In the 1850s and 1860s, Dott purchased and framed many small pictures by Horatio McCulloch (Smith 1988 p.106). In the later 19th century and early 20th century, judging from a notebook of frame profiles and customers (National Library of Scotland, acc.10421, item 3), the business was framing work by David Cameron, Robert Herdmann (a Carlyle oak pattern in 1876), Robert Hutchinson (Carlyle oak pattern), Norman McBeth, William MacTaggart, David Scott and others. Dott is documented as making frames for MacTaggart by payments in 1859 and 1864 (Per Kvaerne, William MacTaggart: Singing Songs of the Scottish Heart, 2007, p.44); a labelled frame can be found on MacTaggart's The Lobster Fishers, 1899 (National Gallery of Victoria, Australia, see Payne 2007 p.15). In the 20th century, it would appear that Aitken Dott & Son made various frames for James Guthrie (see also above). The business's frame label can be found on E.A. Walton's watercolour,The Ford, by 1912 (National Gallery of Victoria, Australia, see Payne 2007 p.19) and on his Self-portrait, c.1918-22 (Fitzwilliam Museum).
Sources: Information kindly supplied by William Jackson, 30 July 2007, primarily concerning the 20th-century history of the business. Company records in the form of accounts, correspondence etc, 1875-1955 at National Library of Scotland (acc. 10421, online catalogue ); other papers, c.1870-1979, including ledgers, accounts, day books, picture stock book, correspondence etc privately held (National Register of Archives, NRA 22835 Aitken Dott). For abbreviations, see Resources and bibliography.
*Francis Draper 1854/5-1915, Francis Draper & Son 1915-1929, Francis Draper 1930-1941. At 24 Nassau St, Middlesex Hospital, London 1856, 70 Great Titchfield St 1856-1863, 1 Green St, Grosvenor Square 1864-1886, 67 Park St, Grosvenor Square 1887-1913, 110 Albany St NW 1914-1941. Also at 91 Davies St 1890-1897, 1a Davis Mews 1898-1902, 9 Sedley Place, Oxford St 1903-1906, 10 Sedley Place 1907-1913. Carver and gilder, picture framemaker, initially listed as gilder and painter.
Francis Draper (1832-1924) was born 12 January 1832, the son of Joseph and Mary Draper. He was apprenticed to Robert Thick (qv), describing himself as being ‘out of my time' on 12 January 1853, when he would have been 21 (Thick account book, see Sources below, p.161b). He continued to assist Thick on an occasional basis until December 1853 (Thick account book p.47b), before setting up in business in his own right in 1854 or 1855. His partnership with William Barry, trading as carvers, gilders and picture framemakers at 70 Great Titchfield St, was dissolved in August 1856 (London Gazette 8 August 1856). At the time of his wedding to Eliza Niven (1832-before 1881) on 4 March 1857, he was living at 70 Great Titchfield St.
Draper's business expanded over time, as the census records reveal: in 1861 he was listed as employing one man, two apprentices and a boy, in 1871 11 men and two boys and in 1881 20 men. He was living at 88 Great Titchfield St in 1851, 71 Great Titchfield St in 1861, Acton, Middlesex in 1871, 1 Green St in 1881 and 67 Park St in 1891 and 1901.
Draper worked for the National Portrait Gallery from 1884 and, according to his later trade label, the governments of Australia, Canada, India and South Africa and also for many members of the Royal Family (label repr. Simon 1996 p.135). He was described by Sir Charles Holmes, Director of the National Portrait Gallery, as ‘best of fellows and frame-makers', following an afternoon spent trout fishing together in 1914. It was probably Holmes's friendship which led to Draper being employed at the National Gallery, where Holmes became Director in 1916. A note supplied by Draper, dated December 1920, records the inexorable rise in the costs of framemaking around the time of the First World War, from 9d per hour for employing a gilder in 1912 to 2s.3d in 1920 (National Portrait Gallery records, Duplicate of Accounts, vol.8, p.125).
Francis Draper was listed in the 1911 census at 67 Park St as a carver and gilder, picture frame maker and employer, with his son, Frank, also described as a carver and gilder, picture frame maker. The business traded as Francis Draper & Son from 1915, when Draper was 83 years old, and was probably continued by his son, Frank Draper (1861-1926). By 1930 the business had been acquired by Chapman Bros (qv). Although trading as Francis Draper, the name of E.J. Chapman is given on the business's invoices and by 1935 Draper's address at 110 Albany St appears in directory entries for Chapman Bros.
For the National Portrait Gallery, Draper made numerous frames including a Watts frame in 1912 for Emily Childers's Hugh Childers (repr. Simon 1996 p.117) and a 'Tudor' frame in 1925 for a copy of Hans Holbein's William Warham (repr. Simon 1996 p.181).
Draper's label can be found on Lord Leighton's portrait of his father (Sotheby's 9 June 1999 lot 122, again Christie's 9 June 2004 lot 27).
Sources: Information from parish records and other family details kindly supplied 1999 and 2004 by Peter Lockwood, great-great-grandson of Francis Draper's brother; Robert Thick account book 1847-54, p.17 (annotation by Draper recording his father's death, 26 November 1848), p.161b (note by Draper, 21 May 1911, stating that he commenced business in January 1855; however his trade card gives the date as 1854); kindly made available in 1995 by the late Duke of Wellington, thanks to his archivist, Georgina Stonor. For abbreviations, see Resources and bibliography.
*Frederick Draycott, 27 Duke St, Bloomsbury, London 1830-1854. Carver and gilder, composition ornament maker.
In the 1841 census Frederick Draycott or Draycotte, carver and gilder, age 40 (ages were rounded down to the nearest five years in this census) was listed in Duke St, and in 1851 Fras? Draycott, carver and gilder, age 51, born Marylebone, was at 27 Duke St. There may be a connection with the J. Draycott who in 1825 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). By the time of the 1861 census, Frederick Draycott was living at Wapping, described as 'Attached to fine art committee'.
F. Draycott's trade label from 27 Duke St, on John Simpson's Sir Herbert Taylor, c.1833 (National Portrait Gallery) describes him as 'Carver and Gilder, Looking Glass And Picture Frame Manufacturer', offering various additional services, including regilding old frames, restoring paintings, polishing and silvering glasses and, most unusually, 'Harps and Organ Pipes Gilt'. In 1838, he advertised as a composition ornament manufacturer, offering 'a choice
Selection of Designs, suitable for every description of Antique Furniture, House Decoration, Glass and Picture Frames, Console and other Tables, Girandoles, Screens, Ottomans, Window Cornices, &c., at such prices as will merit the attention of the Trade.' (The Catholic Directory, Ecclesiastical Register, and Almanac, 1838, p.161, accessed through Google Book Search).
Sources: DEFM.
*James Dryhurst (active 1725, died 1765/6), Cavendish St, London 1765. Carver.
Primarily a carver, rather than a picture framemaker, Dryhurst worked at Stowe in 1725 (DEFM), for the Duke of Chandos on his house in Cavendish Square, 1727-8, for Lord Dysart on an overmantel tabernacle frame in 1734 and for Lord Northampton on his house in Grosvenor Square, 1761-2 (Beard 1981 p.257). Dryhurst took James Daniel Nicholls as an apprentice in 1736, James Thomas Gaff in 1743 and John George Leigh in 1745, in each case for a premium of £25 (Boyd). In his will, made 2 April 1765 and proved 21 February 1766, he described himself as carver of Cavendish St, St Marylebone; an earlier will had been proved on 14 January 1766 and then the grant of probate revoked.
Dryhurst provided frames and frame mouldings for work at the Foundling Hospital in 1754 and 1757 (Simon 1996 p.55; see also Picture frames at the Foundling Museum on the National Portrait Gallery website). The largest painting now in the Picture Gallery at the Foundling Hospital is Charles Brooking's Flagship before the Wind, given by the artist in 1754. On 13 November 1754 James Dryhurst charged a total of £9.18s for an elaborate and richly carved frame for this work. This sea-piece was intended to match one by Peter Monamy, given in 1747. Dryhurst also supplied standard pattern frames for two full-length portraits at the Hospital, of a type in use at the Hospital since 1746. He was paid £3.15s on 15 June 1757 for '50ft large ovelo to 2 frames with Egg and Tongue and bead with Ribbon and Stick', a payment which would appear to be associated with Joshua Reynolds's Lord Dartmouth, and another full-length, possibly Benjamin Wilson's Francis Fauquier which may have started life as a full-length. Reynolds's portrait measures 91 1/2 x 54 ins and with a 2 ins wide frame would have required almost exactly 25 feet in moulding. James Dryhurst also supplied architectural carving for the Hospital and it is as an architectural carver that he is best known.
For abbreviations, see Resources and bibliography.
*John Dubourg (active 1742, died c.1786), James and George Dubourg c.1786-1790, George Dubourg 1790-1794. In Long Acre, London probably continuously from 1749, 83 Long Acre 1789-1794. Carvers and gilders.
John Dubourg and his wife Susanna had several children between 1742 and 1759, including a son, George, christened 26 January 1748 at St Martin-in-the-Fields. John Dubourg, carver, can be found in Long Acre in the 1749 election poll book (DEFM). ‘Mr Dubourg, carver' received a donation of 5 guineas from the Royal Academy in 1769 (Roscoe 2009). He was described as a carver of Long Acre in the will of his sister, Ann Marshall, made in 1776, in which he and his children were beneficiaries. In his own will, made 8 July 1782 and proved 28 March 1786, John Dubourg of Long Acre left the lease on his house to his wife, Susannah, directing his sons George and James Dubourg, 'to carry on the business', but leaving instructions for his 'stock in trade, pictures and glasses &c' to be sold as soon as convenient after his decease. This sale took place on 3 August 1786, when his stock was sold by the auctioneer, Weare (British Museum Print Room, Whitley papers, vol.5, p.547). George and James dissolved their partnership as carvers and gilders in July 1790 (London Gazette 27 July 1790), leaving George Dubourg to continue trading for a few years. The name is sometimes found spelt Dubourgh, Duberg or Duburge.
The business may have been carried into the next generation: John Dubourg, carver and gilder, can be found at 41 Great St Andrew's St, Seven Dials, 1826-8.
Joseph Wright of Derby used 'Dubourg' for supplying picture frames and packing cases, 1759-61, according to an account totalling some £83, transcribed in Wright's account book (National Portrait Gallery, see Mitchell 1990 pp.274-5, Barker 2009 pp.34-7); these frames were in the rococo style. Philip Passavant gave ‘Mr Dubourgh's, Long Acre' as his contact address when exhibiting at the Society of Artists in 1771.
For abbreviations, see Resources and bibliography.
*Joseph Duffour (active 1733, died 1776). The Golden Head, Berwick St, Soho, London 1752, 1763 and probably for much longer. Carver and gilder, papier mâché maker.
Joseph Duffour (d.1776), a French Catholic, was a leading London framemaker and also a supplier of ornament in papier mâché. The carver and gilder, ‘Duffour', almost certainly Joseph Duffour, advertised as the 'Original Maker of Papie Máchie' (trade card, repr. Heal 1972 p.51), and already by 1749 he was called by Mrs Delany 'the famous man for paper ornaments like stucco'.
Duffour was active by 1733. He took an apprentice named Cook in 1743 (DEFM) and another, Peter Smith, in 1749 (Boyd). This Peter Smith was mentioned in the painter, Joseph van Aken's will in 1749, and also apparently in that of Peter Babell (qv) in 1770. He may be the Peter Smith of Covent Garden who was made bankrupt in 1766 (Gentleman's Magazine April 1766). Duffour was very well acquainted with another French carver, Jean Antoine Cuenot (qv), as he testified in 1763 as one of the witnesses to Cuenot's will.
Duffour remarried in 1746 to Mary Ann Goupy (Jacob Simon, ‘New Light on Joseph Goupy (1689-1769)', Apollo, vol.139, Feb. 1994, p.18); their son William Duffour (d.1787) was also a framemaker, initially in partnership with his mother (Daily Advertiser 7 February 1776), before becoming a floor cloth maker, operating from 30 Berwick St and then by 1786 at Little Titchfield St, Cavendish Square. It is worth noting that Joseph Duffour had a brother Peter, whose marriage he witnessed in 1733, and who had several children; it should also be noted that there were several men living in London by the name of Joseph Duffour in the first half of the 18th century.
For the Prince of Wales, Joseph Duffour supplied the magnificent frame on John Wootton and William Hogarth's Frederick Prince of Wales in the Hunting Field at a cost of £57.15s in 1734 (Royal Collection, see Millar 1963 p.183). He billed the Prince of Wales for other frames and glass amounting to £97.7s in 1737, including a set of 12 frames for Luca Giordano's Cupid and Psyche series.
Duffour supplied work for various country house owners. He was paid by John, 2nd Duke of Montagu for ‘carving work' in 1738 and his name occurs in the accounts of Charles 5th Lord Baltimore, Gentleman of the Bedchamber to the Prince of Wales, 1745-6 (Mason 1992 p.94, Murdoch 1985 p.202). He provided picture frames for the 2nd Earl of Egremont at Petworth House, Sussex, 1752-7, both in the rococo style, for eight little works by Elsheimer, and in the Maratta style, an earliy reference to this style in England being contained in his bill for a gilt 'Carlomarat' frame in March 1752 (Simon 1996 p.65). ‘Duffour' was paid for making frames for William Windham of Felbrigg Hall, Norfolk, 1756 (information from Alastair Laing, 1994). He also supplied frames for Longford Castle, Wiltshire (Country Life, vol.70, 1931, p.717).
Duffour appears to have made frames for Thomas Hudson, the most fashionable London portrait painter in the late 1740s and early 1750s, judging from payments in the artist's bank account, 1751-3, and he also regilded the frame for Hudson's painting, Benn's Club of Aldermen, in 1762 (Goldsmiths' Company). He may have been responsible for the magnificent frame on Hudson's George Frideric Handel (National Portrait Gallery, see Simon 1996 p.160, no.37).
Another Duffour, René Duffour, is sometimes referred to as a carver and gilder, for example in the Dictionary of English Furniture Makers but it is not clear that such a maker ever existed.
Sources: Duchy of Cornwall, Frederick Prince of Wales household accounts, vol.7, p.196 (for frames for the Prince of Wales in 1737), and also Michael Levey, The Later Italian Pictures in the Collection of Her Majesty the Queen, 2nd ed., Cambridge, 1991, pp.97-8; Gervase Jackson-Stops, 'Great Carvings for a Connoisseur: Picture Frames at Petworth', Country Life, vol.168, 1980, p.1030; Christopher Rowell, ‘The 2nd Earl of Egremont and Egremont House', Apollo, vol.147, April 1998, pp.15-21; Thomas Hudson 1701-1779, exh.cat., Iveagh Bequest, Kenwood, 1979, no.53. For abbreviations, see Resources and bibliography.
George Durand, see James Linnell
Found a mistake? Have some extra information? Who should be added to this directory? Please contact Jacob Simon at jsimon@npg.org.uk
