British picture framemakers, 1630-1950 - J
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
*George Jackson by 1817-1830, George Jackson & Sons 1830-1907, George Jackson & Sons Ltd from 1907. At 50 Rathbone Place, Oxford St, London by 1817-1856, 49 Rathbone Place 1833-1934, Rathbone Works, Rainville Road, Fulham until the 1980s. Composition ornament makers, later also pâpier maché and carton pierre manufacturers.
George Jackson (1779-1850) is sometimes described as a supplier of composition ornament to Robert Adam for interior architectural use and is said to have laid the foundation in 1780 at 49 Rathbone Place of the firm of G. Jackson & Sons Ltd (Beard 1981 p.266). However, Jackson was not born until 1779, making it more likely that it was his his father, Thomas Jackson (qv), who was associated with Robert Adam. Further research is needed into the early history of this business.
The son of Thomas and Susanna Jackson, George Jackson was born 1 May 1779 and christened at St Mary Marylebone. George Jackson and his wife, Joanna Best, had four sons, George (b.1804), William (b.1805), Thomas (1806-87) and John (1809-76), three of whom were christened at Stockwell Independent New Chapel, Lambeth. His death at his residence in Ealing in his 72nd year was announced in August 1850 (The Times 7 August 1850). In his will, made 9 July and proved 19 September 1850, Jackson made provision for his wife, Joanna, his three daughters and two of his sons, excluding his other two sons, Thomas and John, ‘because I consider that they have been amply provided for in the business which they have carried on in partnership with me'.
It has been identified that George Jackson was living at 246 Tottenham Court Road with his father, producing boxwood moulds in reverse and that by 1817 he had acquired 50 Rathbone Place (Marion R. May, The ornamental Jacksons: a brief history of George Jackson & Sons Limited, ornamental composition manufacturers, Guildford, 2001, p.7, from information in the archives of George Jackson & Sons Ltd).
In an 1830 London directory, George Jackson described himself as composition ornament manufacturer to his Majesty, a royal warrant which he had received in 1826 (repr. by Marion May, p.2). His trade card from 50 Rathbone Place, perhaps dating to the 1820s, describes the business as ‘Composition Ornament Manufacturer, by special appointment to His Majesty... Architects, Surveyors, Builders, Carpenters, Carvers, Gilders, Cabinet Makers, & the Trade in general supplied (Johnson coll. Trade Cards 23 (86). In a full-page advertisement in Robson's 1836 London directory, the business described itself as ‘Manufacturers of Composition Ornaments, and Improved Papier Machée', offering ‘A Large Assortment of Picture and Glass Frames', among other services.
George Jackson junior is mentioned in a press report of a fire in adjoining premises in 1830 (The Times 21 January 1830). George Jackson's son, John, is said to have brought the carton pierre process from France, and his son in turn to have introduced ‘fibrous plaster' (Beard 1981 p.266). George Jackson & Sons issued several catalogues during the 19th century including one with 34 plates in 1836, First part of the collection of detailed enrichment, and various articles of taste and furniture (copies in British Library, RIBA Library, Winterthur Library); in this, the business described itself as composition ornament and improved pâpier maché manufacturers, modellers, carvers, and workers in ornamental Roman cement and plaster of Paris. The business won medals at the 1851 and 1862 London exhibitions, and the 1855, 1867 and 1878 Paris exhibitions, as it claimed in London trade directories.
The partnership, George Jackson & Sons, as composition ornament makers underwent various changes. George Jackson the younger withdrew in 1833, leaving George Jackson the elder and two of his other sons, Thomas and John, to carry on the business (London Gazette 24 September 1833). George Jackson the elder died in 1850. Thomas Jackson withdrew from his partnership with John Jackson in 1851 (London Gazette 21 January 1851). John Jackson the elder then went into partnership with his sons, John Jackson the younger and Edward Elliot Jackson, until he withdrew from the partnership in 1868 (London Gazette 23 June 1868). The later history of the business, which has continued in one form or another, is not traced here but it is worth noting that in 1907 the partners in the business, Edward Elliot Jackson (1838-1910), Edward Francis Jackson (1870-1950) and Elliot George Jackson (b.1874), announced that their partnership had been converted into a private company, George Jackson & Sons Ltd (London Gazette 23 April 1907).
Geo. Jackson & Sons, composition ornament manufacturers, presented a bill to Charles Barry, covering work done in August 1830 (Manchester Archives and Local Studies: Royal Manchester Institution, M6/1/50/p141). The business supplied various large glass frames and picture frames for Buckingham Palace at a cost of £188 in 1840 (DEFM). It was employed by Queen Victoria, 1846-57 (Joy 1969 p.684). Some 850 reverse-carved boxwood moulds with a provenance to the George Jackson business were given to the Victoria and Albert Museum in 1989 (Burlington Magazine, vol.135, 1983, p.444).
Sources: Marion R. May, The ornamental Jacksons: a brief history of George Jackson & Sons Limited, ornamental composition manufacturers, Guildford, 2001 (identifying George Jackson's life dates, the birth and christening of his sons, The Times notice of his death, his will, and other information about the business's early history; kindly drawn to my attention by Liz Harper). For abbreviations, see Resources and bibliography.
*Robert P. Jackson by 1868-1891, Robert Jackson & Son 1892-1894 or later, Robert Jackson & Sons by 1900-1972. At 3 Slater St, Liverpool by 1868-1924, 18a Slater St 1925-1941, 20 Slater St 1943-1972. Carvers and gilders, picture framemakers, printsellers, artists' colourmen.
The business claimed to have been established in 1866, according to their later invoice paper. Robert Proctor Jackson (c.1834-1915?) was listed in 1870 (Gore's directory), and in 1888 with shops at 3 Slater St and 71 Wood St, Liverpool W. He was recorded in the 1881 census as a carver and gilder, age 47, living at 2 Sugnall St, with wife and four sons, the eldest John Jackson, age 21, a carver and gilder.
The business had an account with the artists' suppliers, Roberson, trading from 3 Slater St, 1879-1908 (Woodcock 1997). It advertised in The Year's Art from 1897 until 1925. Jackson's label has been recorded on a work of 1869 (information from Cathy Proudlove). The business supplied the frame for Edwin Pettitt's A View of Bala Lake, 1889 (Royal Collection, see Millar 1992 no.547). It acted as Liverpool agent for the ‘Titian' Medium Manufacturing Co (qv) in 1902.
For abbreviations, see Resources and bibliography.
*Thomas Jackson, Holborn, London by 1799, Tottenham Court Road 1800-1804, 246 Tottenham Court Road 1805-1832. Composition ornament maker.
If a member of the Jackson family did indeed work with Robert Adam, as George Jackson & Sons later claimed, then it is likely to have been Thomas Jackson (1746-1832) rather than his son, George (qv). Thomas Jackson is said to have traded as an ornamental composition manufacturer and framemaker in Tottenham Court Road from 1763 and, according to Marion May, in 1793 he took out a lease on a new house at 246 Tottenham Court Road for a term of 31 years (Marion R. May, The ornamental Jacksons: a brief history of George Jackson & Sons Limited, ornamental composition manufacturers, Guildford, 2001, p.7, from information in the archives of George Jackson & Sons Ltd). Thomas Jackson of 246 Tottenham Court Road took out insurance in 1824 with the Sun Fire Office.
Thomas Jackson was baptised in March 1746 at Selkirk (see Sources below). He married Susanna Jackson at St George Hanover Square in 1772 and they had five children, Mary in 1773, Thomas in 1774, George in 1776 (presumably died young), George in 1779 and Sarah in 1781, christened at St Mary Marylebone, and other children who remain to be traced. Thomas Jackson of Tottenham Court Road was buried on 24 October 1832, age 86, at St Mary Marylebone. In his will, made 23 June 1819 and proved 27 November 1832, Thomas Jackson, composition ornament maker, left his lease on 246 Tottenham Court Road to his son, George Jackson (qv), composition ornament maker of Rathbone Place, together with ‘the whole of my moulds and working utensils', on condition that he take these moulds and utensils on a valuation, otherwise both the lease and the moulds were to be sold for the benefit of his other son, Thomas, and his daughters, Mary, Sarah, Elizabeth and Charlotte. His premises in Tottenham Court Road were subsequently occupied by Benjamin Louis Lecand (qv).
Descriptions such as 'Jacksons rich shell moulding', 'Jacksons egg' and 'Jacksons frill'd edge', appear in the framemaking ledgers of John Smith (qv) from 1812, suggesting that Thomas Jackson, or possibly his son, George Jackson, 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).
Sources: Information from Marion R. May on Thomas Jackson's baptism and burial, the former supplied to her by the late Bob Lindsay, and from Liz Harper on Jackson's marriage). For abbreviations, see Resources and bibliography.
Benjamin Jagger, see John Thirtle
Charles Francis James, 32 Edward St, Portman Square, London 1841-1843, 9 Upper Berkeley St 1844-1847, 107 Great Russell St, Bloomsbury 1848-1849, 35 Princes St, Soho 1851-1878, 63 Wardour St, Soho 1879-1889. Picture restorer from 1841, also carver and gilder from 1855, picture dealer and importer.
See British picture restorers on the National Portrait Gallery website.
Alfred Jeffries 1878-1884, A. Jeffries & Co 1884-1887, Moulding & Artists' Materials Manufactory Co Ltd 1887. At 2-3 Maynard St, Bloomsbury, London 1878-1884, 443 Oxford St 1880-1882, 107 New Oxford St and Grove Works, Estate Road, Clapham Junction 1883-1887. Manufacturer of mouldings, frames, colours and canvas. Later trading as Alfred Jeffries & Co, 19 Pilgrim St, Ludgate Hill EC 1894-1898, 95 New Oxford St 1896-1908, picture framemakers.
The business advertised as 'Manufacturers of White Mouldings, Picture Frames, Artists' Colors and Canvas' (The Year's Art 1884). It had an account with the artists' suppliers, Roberson, 1878-85 (Woodcock 1997). A stencilled canvas mark has been recorded, 1878. Alfred Jeffries was made bankrupt in 1888 (London Gazette 4 May 1888, where details of other addresses etc are given).
Samuel Jennings, 5 Goswell St, London from 1824, Samuel Jennings & Son 1850s to 1880s. Carvers and gilders, printsellers. 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.
George Robert Jennison, see Bennett & Jennison Ltd
Archibald Johnson, see George Morant
*A.W. Johnson, 58 Westbourne Grove, Bayswater, London 1877-1883, 62a Westbourne Grove 1884-1915, 20 Lower Phillimore Place, Kensington Road 1895-1899, renamed and numbered 1899, 136 High St, Kensington 1900-1905, 152 High St, Kensington 1906-1929, 5 Kensington High St 1929-1940. Picture dealer, from 1885 gilder and picture framemaker.
Arthur Walford Johnson (b. c.1853), son of Edward Johnson, an artist, was first listed in business at 58 Westbourne Grove in 1877, premises previously occupied by William Johnson, picture dealer, presumably a relative. Arthur Johnson was recorded in the 1881 census as a picture dealer, age 28, born Lambeth, living at his parent's home in Richmond, Surrey. In the 1901 census he was listed at 136 High St, Kensington, as a picture framemaker, age 48, born Stockwell.
Johnson advertised regularly in The Year's Art as a gilder, picture framemaker and fine art dealer, also offering in 1920 to clean, line and restore paintings, featuring original etchings and colour reproduction in 1925 and offering 'The Johnson Gallery' as available for one-man shows in 1933. He appears to have been responsible for regilding the Alhambra frame of Lowes Cato Dickinson's Charles Kingsley (National Portrait Gallery), c.1905-15 (later than the date suggested in Simon 1996 p.172).
**Robert Johnson, The Golden Head, Frith St, Soho, London by 1737-1749 or later. Carver and gilder, framemaker.
Robert Johnson was described by Thomas Johnson (qv), his cousin and apprentice from 1737, as 'the worst carver I ever knew' (Simon 2003 p.2). Robert Johnson took further apprentices, Samuel Joseph Hartley in 1744 for the relatively small fee of £4.4s (Boyd) and Joshua Chenn in 1746 (DEFM).
Robert Johnson's rococo-style trade card states that he ‘Makes all Sorts of Carv'd frames for Marble Tables, & Chimney pieces, Picture frames, and Glass Sconce frames, Prints and Drawings fram'd & Glaz'd, Pictures Clean'd Lin'd & Mended with all other Carv'd & Gilt Ornaments in the Best Manner at Reasonable Rates' (repr. Heal 1972 p.88). Robert Johnson may be the ‘Johnson' who supplied print frames for Petworth (Jackson-Stops 1980 p.1030), but otherwise he appears to have been a fairly minor member of the trade. He is possibly 'Johnson the framemaker', from whom George Vertue purchased frames in June and July 1753 costing £4.8s in total (British Library, Add.MS 44024-5).
For abbreviations, see Resources and bibliography.
*Thomas Johnson, London to 1746, Liverpool 1746-1747, Dublin 1747-1748, Liverpool 1748-1753?, Dublin 1753?-1755, Queen St, Seven Dials, London 1755-1756/7, The Golden Boy, Grafton St, Soho 1757-1763, Store St c.1764-1767 or later, The Golden Boy, Charlotte St, Bloomsbury by 1775-1777, Queen's Gardens, Brompton c.1777-1785 or later, 12 Princes Row, Pimlico by 1788-1791, 9 King St, Westminster 1793, 18 Crown St, Westminster 1795. Carver and gilder, designer.
Thomas Johnson (1723-99) is known as one of the leading designers in the rococo style through his engraved furniture designs, published 1755-62. Until the discovery of his autobiography, little had been known about his life. It is now possible to trace his activities in some detail: apprentice to his cousin Robert Johnson (qv) in 1737, journeyman for James Whittle from 1744 to 1746, almost ten years in Liverpool and Dublin from 1746 to 1755, foreman to Whittle and Norman on his return to London in 1755, designer for Thomas Vialls (qv) from the mid-1750s to the 1770s, and chapel clerk and freemason in his later years. He was declared bankrupt in 1764, and was further involved in bankruptcy proceedings in 1778, still described as of Store St (London Gazette 11 September 1764, 17 February 1778).
Johnson complained that the carving business was ruined by the invention of composition, so that by the late 1770s he seems to have given up carving, moving away from the centre of London (Simon 2003 p.54). He used the stationer, Henry Brookes (qv), as a central London address for mail, apparently in the mid-1780s (Simon 2003 p.14).
Johnson is well known as a publisher of designs for mirror frames. His activities in picture framing can be outlined. In 1759 he designed and supervised the production of a magnificent frame costing the huge sum of £200 for a portrait of the then Prince of Wales by Allan Ramsay, probably that painted for the Prince's tutor Lord Bute. The frame however was burnt in the fire which wiped out the workshops of Whittle and Norman in December 1759 (Simon 2003 p.7).
According to Johnson, he received an approach from Thomas Vialls, c.1755/6, to make all his drawings and to undertake the principal part of his work, and subsequently undertook business for Vialls of upwards of £150 a year, for more than twenty-one years (Simon 2003 p.7). Vialls was a leading supplier of picture frames including to such artists as Sir Joshua Reynolds and George Stubbs. One of Johnson's apprentices, Thomas Allwood (qv), went on to become a supplier of picture frames, including to George Romney and George Stubbs.
Sources: Jacob Simon, Thomas Johnson's The Life of the Author, Furniture History Society, 2003, also published in Furniture History, vol.29, 2003, pp.1-64. For abbreviations, see Resources and bibliography.
Jordan & Evans 1801-1809, Evans & Jordan 1814-1825, Jordan & Evans 1822-1825, Nathaniel John Jordan 1825-1828. At 18 Silver St, Golden Square, London 1801-1825, 89 Charlotte St, Fitzroy Square 1825-1828, 24 Mary St, Fitzroy Square 1827-1828. Carvers and gilders, picture framemakers, later a picture dealer.
Nathaniel John Jordan (1773-1843) was christened at St Pancras Old Church. He took out insurance with the Sun Fire Office in January 1801 and January 1805 as a carver and gilder at 18 Silver St, Golden Square, jointly with William Evans (qv) with whom he was in partnership. The partnership was variously described as Jordan & Evans and Evans & Jordan. The two men each took out insurance policies on the Silver St premises in 1819 and Jordan in 1820. The partnership between Jordan and Evans, carvers and gilders at 18 Silver St, was dissolved in January 1825 (London Gazette 11 January 1825).
Jordan then set up independently at 89 Charlotte St, taking out insurance on these premises in 1825 as a gilder and picture dealer, subsequently renewing the policy in 1827 and 1828 from 24 Mary St as a picture dealer. He seems to have retired from business in about 1828.
Jordan married Martha Jeffery in 1823 at St James Westminster, apparently his second wife. In the 1841 census he was listed at 29 Lower Eaton St, Pimlico, together with his son, Henry Nathaniel Jordan (1802-78), carver and gilder, who had been trading from this address since 1835, and previously at 34 Broad St, Golden Square. Nathaniel John Jordan died in 1843; in his will, made 30 April 1834 and proved 20 January 1844, he states that he was christened as Nathaniel John Jordan but for some time was called John Nathaniel Jordan; he describes himself as late of Charlotte St, but now of Ebury St, Pimlico, and refers to his wife, Martha, and son, Henry Nathaniel Jordan. This son framed Stephen Pearce's Antler with Grey Petty, 1840 (Royal Collection, see Millar 1992 no.544); subsequently, by the late 1850s, he was trading from Brixton.
Sources: Guildhall Library, Records of Sun Fire Office, vols 477, 483, 504, 516, 521. For abbreviations, see Resources and bibliography.
Henry Nathaniel Jordan, see Jordan & Evans
*Henry Jouret (active 1750, died 1805), ‘The Architrave Frame', Grafton St, Soho, London 1755, ‘The Gold Frame', Maiden Lane, Covent Garden by 1774-1780, Kentish Town 1785, 1799. Carver and gilder, picture framemaker, printseller.
Henry Jouret or Jourett, picture framemaker of the parish of St Anne, took an apprentice, Thomas Eastaff in 1753 (Boyd). Henry Jouret and his wife Esther or Hesther had a daughter, Elizabeth, christened at St Anne Soho in 1750 and apparently nine children christened at St Paul Covent Garden between 1753 and 1768, including three successive sons by the name of Henry in 1755, 1756 and 1758. Jouret put his house up to let in 1780 (Public Advertiser 13 July 1780), retiring to Fitzroy Place, Kentish Town, where he was listed in 1799. His will, as Henry Jourett, picture framemaker of Kentish Town, dated 10 November 1785 and proved 18 July 1805, mentions his wife Esther.
Henry Jouret's rococo trade card by Matthias Lock exists with two different addresses, the earlier describing him as ‘Picture Frame Maker at the Architrave Frame in Grafton Street, St. Ann's Soho' (repr. Murdoch 1985 p.203), the later as ‘Picture Frame-Maker and Print-Seller, at the Gold Frame the Middle of Maiden Lane Covent Garden' (repr. Heal 1972 p.88). The remaining text, common to both cards, states that Jouret ‘Makes all sorts of Black and Gold Frames for Paintings, Prints and Glasses, and all sorts of Ornaments Carved and Guilded. NB. Prints varnished in the Best manner Reasonable Rates'.
There are payments to Jouret for a pear-tree looking glass frame in 1755 and for a picture frame in 1775 (DEFM), but otherwise frames by this presumably Huguenot maker have yet to emerge. ‘Jouret' was noted as a framemaker by the engraver, George Vertue, in one of his notebooks in or after 1751 (British Library, Add.MS 23096).
Jouret is sometimes identified with Henry Joris, who worked with Paul Petit (qv) to produce frames for Frederick Prince of Wales in 1739 but evidence for this interpretation has not been forthcoming.
For abbreviations, see Resources and bibliography.
Found a mistake? Have some extra information? Who should be added to this directory? Please contact Jacob Simon at jsimon@npg.org.uk
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