British picture restorers, 1630-1950 - B (Part 1)

William Baldwin (listed 1848-51 as William Baldwin junr) 1848-1865, 33 Regent St, Lambeth Walk, London 1848-1851, 12 Great Newport St, Long Acre 1852-1865. Print and drawing mounter and cleaner, paper splitter.

William Isaac Baldwin (c.1818-1866), son of William Harvey Baldwin and Sarah Watson, married Maria Holmes in 1839 at St James Westminster. In censuses he can be found in 1841 living at 25 Great Newport St as a picture liner, together with his wife Maria, in 1851 in Falcon Lane, Battersea, a print restorer, age 32, employing two men, with his wife Maria, three daughters and a sister and in 1861 at 9 Falcon Road, by now widowed, a restorer of prints and drawings, with two daughters. He died in 1866 at the age of 48 in the Strand registration district. A posthumous sale of his collection of engravings was held by Puttick on 6 June 1866 (copy in British Library).

Baldwin is said to have been originally with Holloway the printseller. By 1848 he had set up in business independently as a mounter of drawings and paper splitter, initially describing himself as William Baldwin junior or as William Isaac Baldwin, to differentiate himself from his father. He was the only person then engaged in the special trade of cleaning and restoring prints, according to Andrew Tuer, who also claimed that Baldwin had a great reputation among print collectors and dealers but for many years personally seldom touched a print, leaving everything to his manager, William Grisbrook (qv).

Baldwin was listed as William Isaacs Baldwin, paper splitter, in Watkins’ London directory in 1852. In 1848 Baldwin called at the Bank of England, at the request of the directors, to demonstrate that he could split a banknote (The Times 10 January 1849, quoting The Globe; Baldwin is said to have written to The Times, describing himself as a print-mounter and cleaner, but this letter has not been traced). His skills as a paper splitter were sufficiently well known for a foreign collector, M. Hennin, to send a rare portrait engraving to London for the text on the reverse to be separated from the image on the front (Carlo James et al, Old Master Prints and Drawings: A Guide to Preservation and Conservation, Amsterdam, 1997, p.191, quoting A. Bonnardot, Essai sur l’art de restaurer les estampes et les livres, Paris, 1858).

Baldwin was employed by the National Gallery in 1856 ‘for mounting 100 of the Turner Sketches selected by Mr. Ruskin’ at 3s each, totalling £15, hardly very much compared to the £286 paid to Colnaghi & Co for their work on the Turner drawings at the same time; Baldwin was paid a further £1.11s.6d the following year (National Gallery Archive, NG13/1/3, Cash Book 1855-66). He was employed by the print dealers, P. Colnaghi, in the mid-19th century. ‘W. Baldwin’, restorer and mounter of prints and drawings, sent ‘financial papers’ to William Gott of the West Riding, Yorkshire in 1860 (Leeds University, Brotherton Library: Gott Papers, MS194/6/130).

Sources: Andrew White Tuer, Bartolozzi and his Works, vol.1, n.d but 1882, pp.92-4.

Updated October 2009
George Barker senr, St Pancras, London 1816, Beeston, Nottinghamshire 1818, Northampton 1820-1828 or later, Leamington, Warwickshire by 1831, 19 Clemens St, Leamington 1833, 6 Lower Union Parade, Leamington 1835-1838. Picture restorer and picture expert.

George Barker (1794-1838) is probably identifiable with the man born on 9 June 1794 at Beeston, Nottinghamshire, the son of Joseph Barker and Elizabeth Cross. He married Mary Bailey in November 1812 at Newark in Nottinghamshire, and they had seven children between 1816 and 1832, six of whom were baptised on 24 June 1831, and the seventh the following year, at the Mill St Chapel of the Calvinistic Methodist Church in Leamington, also known as Leamington Spa. It would appear that the family lived in Northampton in the 1820s, where several of the children were born between 1820 and 1828, according to their 1831 baptismal records. The family moved to Leamington by 1831. In an earlier version of this biography, George Barker was misidentified as the individual who married Alice Wilson at Eagle in Lincolnshire in 1812.

The story is told that in about 1815, when he would have been just 21, George Barker discovered Rembrandt's Titus (now Norton Simon Museum, Pasadena) in a farmhouse near The Hague and brought it home to present to his patron, Lord Spencer at Althorp (Christie's Review of the Year October 1964-July 1965, 1965, p.23)

George Barker was listed as a restorer and connoisseur of old paintings in 1833 and as a restorer of old paintings in 1835 (Moncrieff's Guide to Leamington Spa, 6th ed., 1833, and Pigot & Co.'s National Commercial Directory of the Counties of Derby, Hereford..., 1835). He held an account with the artists' suppliers, Roberson & Miller, from 6 Parade, Leamington, 1835-8 (Woodcock 1997). This address appears to be identical with Lower Union Parade, found in an 1835 directory, and with 6 Lower Parade, in an 1838 directory. It is not clear whether George Barker can be linked to Barker & Son, who advertised an auction sale of books and works of art in Leamington in 1835 or to Mr Barker who auctioned a collection of engravings in 1837 (Leamington Chronicle, 20 Aug 1835, 2 September 1837).

At his death on 12 February 1838, age 44, Barker was described as ‘Mr. George Barker, of Leamington. As a restorer of old pictures, his skill was, perhaps, greater than that of any man living' (Gentleman's Magazine, vol.9, 1838, p.446, presumably derived from the obituary in the Leamington Chronicle 15 February 1837). Barker's own collection, sold at auction four years later, following his widow's death, included oil paintings, watercolours, prints, books, a cabinet of British insects, fossils and Dresden china (Royal Leamington Spa Chronicle 14 July 1842).

Barker worked with his daughter on the collection of the Earl of Bradford at Weston Park in Shropshire, 1834-5, where his highest charge, £6, was for treating Jacopo Bassano's The Way to Calvary (National Gallery, see Penny 2008 pp.6, 446). He then worked at Rockingham Castle with his son, also George Barker (see below), in February 1837 and at Warwick Castle in April, as his correspondence with George Appleyard reveals (British Library, Add.MS 76754, letters 1 to 3). He proposed to go on from Warwick Castle to Althorp, and then to Rockingham, writing to Appleyard at Spencer House in London on 30 April that he would require further lining canvas, ‘I have exhausted all my wide canvas & if I must go [to Althorp on Tuesday next], I must beg of you to send the porter to Mr Browns, 163 High Holborn Colourman for 20 feet of lining canvas, 62 inches wide, which he will charge 2s.11d a yard for. I have ordered a quantity from the manufacturer which will not be charged so much'. For Brown, see Thomas Brown in British artists' suppliers on the National Portrait Gallery website.

Early in 1838 Barker was working with his son on the Van Dycks at the Earl of Denbigh's and at Guys Cliffe, Warwickshire, only to die suddenly shortly thereafter at the age of 44. His practice was taken over by this son, George Barker junr (see below).

It is worth noting that the Barkers of Bath, well-known artists, had connections with Newark, where George Barker married, but it is not possible to demonstrate a link with the family of George Barker (information from Bruce Barker).

Sources: Bruce Barker, great-great-great-grandson of George Barker senr, kindly supplied detailed information concerning his ancestors in June 2009, and subsequently. This has enabled this biography to be extended to include information in particular on the baptism of the Barker children at the Mill St Chapel in Leamington and on the family's Leamington years, notably from local newspapers as quoted above.

Updated October 2009
George Barker, 6 Lower Union Parade, Leamington 1838-1842, 114 New Bond St, London 1846-1848, Great Brington, Northamptonshire 1848, 35 Howland St, London 1848-1850, Florence 1850, 12 North Crescent, Bedford Square, London 1851-1860, 17 Wellington Terrace, St John's Wood 1861-1867, road renamed and numbered 1867, 39 Wellington Road 1868-1874. Picture restorer and artist.

George Barker (1818-1883) was well regarded as a picture restorer. He was born at Beeston, Nottinghamshire, in 1818, the son of George Barker and Mary Bailey (he gave Beeston as his birthplace in the 1851, 1861 and 1871 censuses). He was baptised by the evangelical preacher, the Rev. Rowland Hill, at the Mill St Chapel of the Calvinistic Methodist church in Leamington in 1831, when his birth was recorded as at Beeston on 5 December 1818 (Nonconformist BMD). On his death certificate, his full name is given as George Joseph Bailey Barker.

His father was a picture restorer (see above) and it was by accompanying his father to Rockingham Castle at the age of 18 in 1837 and on other similar work that he presumably learnt his trade. The first half of his career is illuminated by his letters of 1838-54 to George Appleyard (d.1855), Lord Spencer's secretary and librarian at Althorp and at Spencer House in London (British Library, Add.MS 76754, Althorp papers).

By 1842, George Barker was considering emigrating to Canada for lack of work but there is no clear evidence that he actually did so, although the family home in Leamington was sold up (Royal Leamington Spa Chronicle 14 July 1842) and his five surviving siblings made the journey (Montreal Gazette 30 September 1842, information from Bruce Barker; according to family tradition George Barker accompanied his siblings to Canada but soon returned to England).

Intriguingly, Barker can most likely be identified as the ‘desperately smitten' young artist who proposed marriage to the writer Mary Ann Evans, later known as George Eliot, when staying at Baginton, near Coventry, in spring 1845: ‘We liked his letters to her very much - simple, earnest, unstudied', one of her Coventry friends wrote, adding, ‘the only objections seemed to be that his profession - a picture-restorer - is not lucrative or over-honourable' (Gordon S. Haight (ed.), The George Eliot Letters, vol.1, 1954, pp.183-4; see also Jacob Simon, ‘Desperately smitten', Times Literary Supplement, no.5531, 3 April 2009, p.15). In 1848, Barker moved permanently from Northamptonshire to London and married Augusta Anne Elliot Dickinson (c.1824-92) at St George Hanover Square. She was the daughter of the printseller, Joseph Dickinson of 114 New Bond St, and sister of the portrait painter, Lowes Cato Dickinson. In November 1850, Barker visited Florence and was planning to go on to Rome, according to his letters to Appleyard.

In census records Barker was recorded in 1851 at 12 North Crescent as an artist and restorer of pictures, age 32, with his wife Augusta and daughter Louisa, in 1861 at 17 Wellington Terrace, St John's Wood, as an artist, age 40, and in 1871 at 39 Wellington Road as a picture restorer, age 52, still with his wife and daughter. In 1881 his wife can be found in Brighton with their daughter, as an annuitant depending on her brother, perhaps suggesting a separation, but George Barker has not been traced; he was perhaps visiting Canada at the time.

It would appear that George Barker visited one or more of his sisters in Canada late in life, whether in about 1870 or rather later, and he gained a reputation among certain of his Canadian relatives for a problematic life style, as is implied by family correspondence. A watercolour attributed to him in the Toronto Reference Library is assigned the date 1881 in the catalogue of the J. Ross Robertson Collection (information from Bruce Barker).

Barker sold his collection of engravings after Sir Joshua Reynolds and his old master and modern paintings at Christie's, 24 and 25 March 1875, including two canvases of Joshua Reynolds's experiments in colour, mentioned by Eastlake in 1847 (see below). He died in 1883, when living at 16 Dunollie Road, Kentish Town (The Times 14 September 1883).

Barker's work as a restorer: Following his father's death in February 1838, Barker wrote to George Appleyard, saying that he had approached Earl Spencer seeking employment and that he had been recommended by the Earl of Denbigh at whose house he and his father had been restoring some of Denbigh's finest Van Dycks. Indeed, Spencer was not alone in receiving such a letter of recommendation, since Denbigh also wrote on Barker's behalf in December 1838 concerning restoration work on pictures at Boughton (National Archives of Scotland, GD224/627/1, Montague-Douglas-Scott Family papers, Dukes of Buccleuch).

Barker worked on pictures at Castle Bromwich in 1842 and Burghley House in 1843 (Penny 2008 p.448, n.24). Over the next few years, as his correspondence with Appleyard reveals, he worked for Lord Craven at Coombe Abbey, Warwickshire (1842, 1850), Lord Exeter at Burghley (1844, 1845, 1849) and Lord Spencer at Althorp House (1844, 1845, 1846, 1848). He also worked at Wickham Park, Bromley (1848), Longford Castle (1848), Aske, Richmond, North Yorkshire (1849, 1851, 1854), Appuldercombe, Isle of Wight (1849), Cobham Hall, Kent (1851) and for Lord Fitzwilliam at Milton, Peterborough (1852).

Barker's growing reputation led Charles Lock Eastlake to describe him in 1847 as ‘well known for his skill as a picture-restorer'; he was said to have in his possession a canvas on which Sir Joshua Reynolds had tried various combinations of colours and vehicles (Materials for a history of oil painting, 1847, p.444). The following year, Barker told Appleyard that he had been asked by Mr Grant the artist, presumably Francis Grant, ‘to give him some of the colour I use prepared according to Sir Joshua Reynolds receipt'. Subsequently, in 1865, he was said to possess ‘a hereditary knowledge of Sir Joshua's methods' and he was described as to be safely trusted with Reynolds's pictures (Leslie 1865 p.377). Rather earlier, in 1845 Barker had been in correspondence concerning cleaning a portrait by Reynolds, apparently for the Fortescue family of Boconnoc, Cornwall (Cornwall Record Office: Fortescue family of Boconnoc, F/4/117/18).

George Barker worked for the National Portrait Gallery between 1858 and 1866, including restoring and lining a Nathaniel Dance studio Lord Clive for the considerable amount of £20 (National Portrait Gallery records, Duplicates of Accounts, vol.1, pp.13, 20, 31, and George Scharf cashbook 1860-8, entries for 14 December 1861, 24 April 1863, 23 June 1866). Barker took photographs of George Scharf, the National Portrait Gallery's first Director, on 17 June 1863. He can be identified as the subject of a photograph given to Scharf in December 1865. Both photographs are contained within two albums which belonged to George Scharf (National Portrait Gallery, see Collections database), and which also contain photographs of two other restorers known to Scharf, Frederick Haines senr and junr (qv).

George Barker supplied a Rembrandt print to Lord Derby in 1869 and later the same year Derby wrote to instruct him to collect certain pictures for cleaning (Bruce Barker kindly provided scans of two letters from Derby to Barker in his collection).

Sources: Bruce Barker, great-great-great-grandson of George Barker senr, has very generously supplied detailed information concerning his ancestors, enabling this biography to be extended, in particular on George Barker junr's baptism by Hill, his entry in the 1851 census, his Canadian connections, including the emigration and residence of various of his siblings in Canada, and his death, including his death certificate. Bruce Barker has also drawn attention to the significance of photographs in the National Portrait Gallery collection.

Bennett Barnett, 9 Marylebone St, Piccadilly, London 1838-1843, 84a Regent’s Quadrant 1844, 80 Quadrant 1845, 21 Tichborne St 1845-1854, 60 Gower St 1855, 146 Regent St and 1 Burlington Gardens 1856, 1a Burlington Gardens 1857-1865. Picture restorer and liner, picture dealer.

Bennett Barnett (c.1811-1880) married in the St James Westminster registration district in 1845. He was recorded in censuses, in 1841 at Marylebone St, as a restorer of pictures, age 29, born in Middlesex, in 1861 at 16 Keppel St, Bloomsbury, age 49, as a picture and curiosity dealer, with a 15-year-old son, ?Rob Barnett, in the same business, in 1871 at 14 Maude Grove, Chelsea, age 59, as a picture agent and restorer, with three children listed as picture restorers, Alice at 22, Samuel at 19 and Alexander at 16 years old. Bennett Barnett, dealer in pictures and curiosities, of 1a Burlington Gardens, was made bankrupt in 1859, and again in 1864, now residing at 16 Keppel St, Russell Square (London Gazette 1 November 1859, 12 April 1864). Apparently a successor business, B. Barnett & Co traded from 1 Charles St, Grosvenor Square, 1866-7, as a picture and curiosity dealer, gilder and picture restorer. Bennett Barnett himself died in the Lambeth registration district, age 69, early in 1880.

Barnett was listed as Benjamin Barnett, picture liner, in Marylebone St in the Post Office directory from 1839 to 1844, probably mistakenly since no Benjamin was recorded at this address in the 1841 census and other sources give the name as Bennett Barnett or simply as B. Barnett. At one time or another he was listed as a ‘picture importer and dealer, cleaner and restorer of old paintings’ and as a ‘picture cleaner and liner, dealer in modern and ancient pictures and restorer of old paintings’.

In 1845 Barnett announced that following the death of Thomas Gwennap (qv), he had succeeded to his business at 21 Titchborne St and was removing from 80 Quadrant (The Times 28 July 1845, 9 August 1845).

The following year, Barnett advertised, ‘As there is a prejudice in placing paintings in the hands of restorers, from the injury inflicted by ignorant pretenders to this profession, Mr. Barnett, having the permission, will afford the highest references to the halls and salons of the nobility and gentry, where specimens of his work can be seen.’ (The Times 10 August 1846), subsequently advertising, ‘B. Barnett…after 25 years’ experience in the business, begs to introduce to the public an entirely new liquid for the cleaning and restoring pictures of any age, prepared solely by him, by which any person totally unacquainted with the art of picture cleaning may, without the slightest difficulty and at a small expense, clean and perfectly restore all descriptions of oil paintings, so as to render them almost equal to their original appearance by only one application of the liquid’, giving his full name as Bennett Barnett (The Times 2 January 1851).

B.B. Barnett, 1a Burlington Gardens, sold a portrait after Samuel Cooper, George Monck, 1st Duke of Albemarle, to the National Portrait Gallery in 1863 (see Piper 1963 p.3).

For abbreviations, see Resources and bibliography.

Bartlett & Co 1811-1828, Giles & Philip Bartlett 1820-1838, G. Bartlett & Son (Giles & William Bartlett) 1838-1843, William Bartlett 1843-1859, William Bartlett & Co 1860-1910. At 19 King St, Soho, London 1811-1822, 20 King St 1819-1820, 18 Blenheim St, Great Marlborough St 1820-1886, also 19 Blenheim St 1841-1843, street renamed 1886, 18 Ramilies St 1886-1910. Japanners, chair japanners and gilders, from c.1860 gilders, decorators and restorers of works of art and vertu, from c.1880 gilders.

The origins of this business appear to lie with Giles and Philip Bartlett, who traded as Bartlett & Co, and who took out insurance with the Sun Fire Office from 20 King St, Soho in 1819 as chair japanners and from 18 Blenheim St as gilders and chair japanners in 1824 and 1836 (Guildhall Library: Records of Sun Fire Office, vol.482 no.960066, 499 no.1013000, 550 no.1215074). Philip Bartlett has not been traced but Giles Bartlett (d.1849) would appear to be the individual who married Ann Collins in 1797 at St Marylebone and had six children between 1798 and 1813, christened at Lady Huntingdon’s Chapel, Clerkenwell, including William (b.1807) and Giles Bartlett (1813-70).

Giles Bartlett senr appears to have traded in partnership with his son, William, from about 1838 until the partnership, as japanners and gilders at 18 Blenheim St, was dissolved in 1843, with William Bartlett carrying on the business (London Gazette 7 November 1843). In his will, made 17 August and proved 28 December 1849, Giles Bartlett of Little George St, Hampstead Road, late a japanner, refers to his two sons, William and Giles, and his three daughters. In censuses, the son Giles was consistently described as a cabinet maker in London and Berkshire, and there is nothing to suggest a connection with his older brother, William’s japanning business; he would appear to have died in 1870, age 57, in the Islington registration district.

William Bartlett acted as a buhl worker for Queen Victoria, 1846-57 (Joy 1969 p.683). He can be traced in successive censuses, in 1841 as a gilder living in Kentish Town, in 1851 as a furniture decorator, living at 21 Queens Road, Marylebone, born St Pancras, with his son Charles J. Bartlett, age 19, born St Pancras, also a furniture decorator, in 1861 as a restorer of works of art and gilder, employing five men and three boys, living at 17 Townsend Road, Marylebone, with his wife, Mary Ann, son Charles Thomas?, restorer of works of art, and another son Richard P., student at Kensington. He was perhaps dead by 1871 since he has not been traced in the census taken that year.

William Bartlett & Co: The business, now William Bartlett & Co, partners unknown, moved into restoration and objets de vertu in the 1860s. It undertook sculpture conservation and related work for the National Portrait Gallery, 1870-85, including cleaning white marble busts and terracotta figures for £2.6s in 1870 (see National Portrait Gallery records, Duplicates of Accounts, vol.1, pp.66, 100, vol.2, p.16). As early as 1864, George Scharf, Director of the National Portrait Gallery, had noted their charges as 12s per day and travelling expenses (business card, National Portrait Gallery records, 22.C.5, NPG History Various Notes Late 19th century).

Bartlett & Co, ‘Carvers, Gilders, Decorators and Restorers of Works of Art and Vertu’, offered a wide range of services as listed in the billhead of their account to the National Portrait Gallery for cleaning sculpture, dated February 1882. These services included ‘Sevres, Dresden, Chelsea, Majolica, Oriental and all kinds of China restored’, also ‘Limoges & Oriental Enamels, Venetian Glass, Wedgwood and Etruscan Ware Restored’, as well as offering to clean, repair and varnish pictures. Other services related to woodwork: ‘Japanese Lack Work, Bantam(?), Indian & Chinese Cabinets, Screens, &c, &c. Painted oak carvings cleaned off, bleached & brought to one even color. Ancient Tapestries repaired & revived. Gilding executed in the rich Venetian style’ (National Portrait Gallery records, Duplicates of Accounts, vol.2, p.16).

Chichester Fortescue Bate senr, 11 Vigo Lane, Golden Square, London 1803-1804, 43 Berners St, Oxford St 1812, 1815, Henry St, Dublin before 1821, Gerrard St, Soho, London before 1821, Brewer St, Golden Square 1821. Print publisher and seller until 1804, picture cleaner and restorer until 1821. Chichester Fortescue Bate junr, various addresses in London and Dublin as below before 1833; 82 York Road, Lambeth, London before 1841, 52 Lower Belgrave Place, Pimlico 1841, 4 Lower Chester Terrace, Pimlico sometime between 1841 and 1845, 41 Upper Ebury St 1845. Music teacher 1833, artist and picture restorer.

There were two generations of restorers by the name of Chichester Fortescue Bate, usually trading as Fortescue Bate.

The father: The father, Chichester Fortescue Bate or Bates (c.1760?-1840), married Mary Cash at St Mary’s, Dublin in 1785. The death of Chichester Fort…[illegible] Bate was recorded in 1840 in the Lambeth registration district. He appears to be identifiable with Fortescue Bate, discussed here.

‘Fortescue Bate’, printseller, of Vigo Lane, Golden Square, London was made bankrupt in 1804 (London Gazette 5 July 1806). He is probably the Fortescue Bate who was taken to court as an insolvent debtor in 1821, when described as a picture restorer, formerly of Berners St, London, and Henry St, Dublin, afterwards of Gerrard St, Soho, and late of Brewer St, Golden Square (London Gazette 16 June 1821).

Bate’s trade card, designed by his fellow Irishman, Henry Tresham, and presumably dating to c.1812, shows a painting on an easel portraying the Muse of Painting warding off the destructive attacks of Time, armed with a scythe. It reads, ‘F. Bate, Cleans & Restores Oil Paintings, 43 Berners Street, Oxford Street. Tresham RA invt. Burney delt. Publish’d as the Act directs. M.N. Bate sculpt.’ (Heal and Banks coll.). This trade card links F. Bate with M.N. Bate, presumably a relative; M.N. Bate is probably to be identified with Martin Nowland Bate, artist, who was made bankrupt in 1812 (London Gazette 4 August 1812).

As David Alexander has pointed out (British Museum collection database), there was a family of artists exhibiting at the Royal Academy and the British Institution in the early 19th century, using initials rather than giving Christian names, including from 36 Brownlow St at one time or another between 1804 and 1812, F. Bate, C. Bate, W. Bate and W.H. Bate. Whether F. Bate is to be identified with Fortescue Bate in each instance is uncertain, all more so since elsewhere he has been considered to be Francis Bate (Strickland 1913 p.47). However, F. Bate did exhibit from 43 Berners St, the address on the trade card quoted above, in 1812 and 1815.

The son: It was possibly the son, also Chichester Fortescue Bate (c.1793-1863), who exhibited at the Royal Academy as ‘F. Bate’ from a Bayswater address in 1829 and 1832. He was sued for debt as Fortescue Bate in 1833, when described as teacher of music, formerly of 43 Berners St, then of 15 Albany Road, Camberwell, afterwards of Rutland Square, Dublin, then of 4 Tavistock St, Bedford Square, afterwards of 9 Hampstead Road, late lodging at Blanche Cottage in the Washway of North Brixton, artist (London Gazette 15 October 1833). At the insolvency hearing, Bate said that his pictures were worth nothing and that he had been obliged to pay his father’s debts. The Insolvency Court Commissioner responded that the cause of his insolvency was accepting a bill for a Captain Harvey and noted that Bate, a young man, had received a considerable sum from Lady Holland (Morning Chronicle 8 November 1833).

Chichester Fortescue Bate married in 1841 in the St Saviour’s registration district in Southwark and died in 1863 in the Kensington registration district. He was recorded at 52 Lower Belgrave Place in the 1841 census as Fortescue Bate, artist, age 48, born in Ireland, then living in the household of William Bate, age 50, also an artist born in Ireland. Fortescue Bate copied a full-length portrait of the Duke of Wellington in 1833 (Apsley House, see Walker 1985 p.524) and painted a portrait of Lord Holland in 1834 (Castle Howard, see Walker 1985 p.258). He was a mourner at the funeral of Marquess Wellesley in 1842 (Gentleman’s Magazine, vol.18, 1842, p.541). As Chichester Fortescue Bate, artist, formerly of 82 York Road, Lambeth, then of 52 Lower Belgrave Place, Pimlico, afterwards of 4 Lower Chester Terrace, Pimlico, and now of 41 Upper Ebury St, and sometime residing at Pathhead-ford, near Edinburgh, he was recorded as an insolvent debtor in 1845 (London Gazette 18 December 1845, 15 January 1847). C.F. Bate held an account with the colourman, Roberson, in 1852 (Woodcock 1997).

For abbreviations, see Resources and bibliography.

Joseph Bell, Bigg Market, Newcastle upon Tyne 1778, The St Luke, High-Bridge, Newcastle upon Tyne 1789-1801, The St Luke, Newgate St, Newcastle. Painter, artist, colourman.

See British artists’ suppliers (forthcoming edition) on the National Portrait Gallery website.

David Bellis (active 1737-1750), The White Bear, Long Acre, London. Colourman and picture restorer.

See British artists’ suppliers on the National Portrait Gallery website.

Vincent Bellman 1832-1860, Bellman & Ivey 1861-1892, Bellman, Ivey & Carter 1892-1905, Bellman, Ivey & Carter Ltd 1906-1938 and later. At 14 Buckingham St, Fitzroy Square, London 1832-1877, 35 Edward St, Dorset Square 1878-1896, street renamed 1897, 35-36 Linhope St 1897-1936; also 41 Howland St, London 1834-1836, manufactory 3 Bedford St, Liquorpond St, Gray’s Inn Road 1847-1864, street renamed and renumbered 1864, 10 Vine St, Liquorpond St 1865-1890; works Barlow Mews, Bruton St c.1899; sculpture galleries, 95 Wigmore St 1878-1885, 37 Piccadilly 1885-1891, 175 Piccadilly 1891-1893, 157b New Bond St 1894-1899. Initially a plasterer and scagliola manufacturer, then suppliers of sculpture and pedestals, later sculpture cleaners.

Vincent Bellman (c.1796-1860) was in business as a plasterer by 1832, additionally as a scagliola manufacturer by 1835. The nature of his business is apparent from an advertisement in 1838 featuring his scagliola works and offering columns and pilasters with capitals and bases, pedestals, candelabra and slabs for table tops (Robson’s London directory 1838).

Bellman married Mary Ann Tookey at Oakham, Rutland in 1837, and they had five daughters and a son (who died young) between 1838 and 1846, all christened at St Pancras Old Church. Bellman was recorded in the 1841 census at Camden Villas as a builder, age 45, and in 1851 at 22 Camden Road Villas as a plasterer and scagliolist, age 55, born in Cornwall, with a wife and five young daughters. He died on 7 October 1860 at 6 Fitzroy St (London Gazette 7 December 1860). It is possible that he is the Vincent Bellman christened at St Minver, Cornwall in 1788, although census records would suggest that he was born about 1796.

Following Vincent Bellman’s death in 1860, the business became Bellman & Ivey. Like Bellman, John Ivey (1794-1874) was born in Cornwall, at St Minver. His son, John Charles Ivey (c.1837-1884) was born in Marylebone in about 1837. In the census in 1851, the father was recorded at Vincent Bellman’s premises at 14 Buckingham St as clerk and bookkeeper, but by 1861 at the age of 66 he had apparently taken control of the business, being recorded at Buckingham St Yard, with his wife Nancy and son John, as a plasterer and scagliola manufacturer, employing 57 men and 11 boys, a medium-sized business. In 1871 at the age of 76 he was still in the business, recorded as a plasterer, scagliola marble and plaster of Paris manufacturer, employing 51 men and ten boys, with his son John recorded as a plasterer. He died on 22 September 1874 (London Gazette 27 October 1874).

The son, John Charles Ivey, married in 1863 in the Marylebone registration district. In the 1881 census he was living in Cornwall as a retired plasterer. He died age 46 in 1884 in the Bodmin registration district. It is not known who managed the business in the 1880s.

From 1892 the business traded as Bellman, Ivey & Carter, with Charles B. Carter as a partner or owner (The Times 13 December 1892). Charles Benjamin Carter (1856-1928?) married in Brixton in 1880 and was recorded in censuses, in 1891 living in Streatham, as a dealer in sculpture and bronzes, age 35, born Bow in London, with wife, three children, nephew, governess and two servants, and in 1911 at 44 Upper Gloucester Place, as ‘Managing Director (Company) Scagliola (artificial marble)’. He may be the Charles B. Carter who died at the age of 72 in the Maidenhead registration district in 1928.

The business went into voluntary liquidation in 1938 (London Gazette 25 November 1938). Its history after 1938 is not traced here except to identify that it continued in two parts, Bellman, Ivey, Carter & Co, scagliola marble manufacturers at Palace Wharf, Rainville Road, Fulham, and Bellman, Ivey & Carter, plaster manufacturers at Huntsworth Mews, NW1. The business again went into voluntary liquidation in 1977 (London Gazette 2 June 1977).

Sculpture dealers and restorers: The nature of Bellman & Ivey’s business in the late 19th century is apparent from their advertisements. In 1884 sculpture was featured as Christmas presents: ‘The largest stock of Sculpture in the kingdom in marble, bronze, terra cotta, Parian, casts, &c. Reproductions from the antique and the gems of modern plastic art’ (The Times 15 December 1884). In 1886, the business was advertising ‘Marbles. Groups, Statues, Busts, Statuettes. By the best English, French and Italian Artists. Bronzes. Agents for the best European Founders. Terra Cotta. Tanagra Figures. Sole London Agents for the Celebrated “Lechner” series of these beautiful antique statuettes… Pedestals for Sculpture (Manufacturers by Appointment to the Queen) In Marble, Scagliola, Wood (Walnut, Oak, Ebonised, &c.)’ (advertisement, The Society of British Artists, exh.cat., winter exhibition 1886-7). In 1906, the business’s invoices described it as ’Manufacturers of Plaster of Paris & Scagliola Marble’.

From about the time the business moved to Piccadilly in 1885 until its withdrawal from retail trade in 1899, it held exhibitions of contemporary sculpture. A sale of its surplus stock was held in 1891 by Foster’s, consisting of Italian statuary and bronzes d’art (The Times 29 July 1891), and a further sale was held in 1899 by May & Rowden of marbles, bronzes and terracottas by contemporary continental sculptors, together with other objects, ‘in consequence of retirement from the retail trade’ (The Times 8 July 1899).

The business worked for Queen Victoria, Edward VII and George V. It held a warrant by appointment to Queen Victoria from at least 1885 as marble manufacturers, and to Edward VII from 1901, and subsequently to George V, as manufacturers of pedestals for statuary and restorers of sculpture (London Gazette 27 January 1885, 1 November 1901, etc). From press reports in the early 1890s, it is apparent that Carter, as the partner in the business, took collections of bronzes to Windsor Castle for Queen Victoria to choose from (e.g., The Times 13 December 1892).

The business worked for the National Portrait Gallery between 1902 and 1919, including ‘cleaning & stopping statuary’, among which were 44 marble busts, ‘reflatting’ 12 plaster casts and other work for £34.14s in 1906, restoring a smashed plaster bust of Edward Bird by Chantrey for £3 in 1908, and supplying 13 green marble pedestals for £112 in 1911, the first of several such orders (National Portrait Gallery records, Duplicates of Accounts, vol.5, pp.34, 122, vol.6, pp.17, 20, 37, 72, 78, vol.7, p.34, etc).

John Bentley 1820-1867, John and Edward Bentley 1869-1878, Edward Bentley 1879-1883. At 5 Wigmore St, Cavendish Square, London 1820-1834, 114 Sloane St 1832-1855, 128 Sloane St 1855-1867 (not listed 1868), 1869-1883. Picture dealer, picture cleaner and restorer, occasional china and antiquities dealer, from 1839 usually listed as an artist, from 1869 picture restorers.

John Bentley, and his sons, John and Edward, were respected picture restorers in London, best known for their work for the National Gallery. The father claimed to have acquired his knowledge of picture restoration through practice, according to his evidence to the National Gallery Select Committee in 1853.

John Bentley (c.1794-1867) married Mary Margaret Ann Bentley (1797-1878) in 1819 in Marylebone. Perhaps a cousin, she was daughter of John and Margaret Bentley. Her younger brother was John Edward Collingwood Bentley (see below). John Bentley was listed in Robson’s London directory as a repairer of paintings in 1820 and as a curiosity dealer in 1822 and 1823; in Underhill’s directory he was described as a repository for china, pictures etc in 1822 (with address as 4 Wigmore St) and he appears to have dealt additionally in antiquities in the mid-1820s. He also appears as Bentley & Son in the Post Office directories for 1823-5 but this would appear to be in error. ‘Bentley’ appears as a frequent purchaser of pictures at auction but it is difficult to be sure that this is John Bentley (Getty provenance index).

From 1839, John Bentley was usually listed as an artist. In census records he can be found in 1841 in Sloane St as an artist, age 47, with wife Margaret, in 1851 at 114 Sloane St as an artist, age 56, born St Giles Bloomsbury, with wife Margaret and four sons, John, Edward, Arthur and Collingwood, ages 30, 26, 24 and 22, respectively artists (the two eldest), carver and gilder and gold beater, and in 1861 at 128 Sloane St as a picture restorer, with John and Edward also picture restorers, apparently working in the business. He died in 1867 at the age of 73 at 128 Sloane St (The Times 27 July 1867). His will was proved by his widow in September 1867 with effects under £600 (information from Lorne Campbell).

The business was carried on by his two sons, John and Edward Bentley. John Wyatt Bentley (1820-1878) was christened at St Luke Chelsea on 6 May 1821. He was listed in the 1871 census at 128 Sloane St as a picture restorer, age 50, with his younger brother, Edward, age 46, also a picture restorer, his mother and a third brother; all three brothers were unmarried. He died at the age of 58 in the Chelsea registration district in 1878, when the business was carried on by his brother. Edward Bentley (1824-1883) was also christened at St Luke Chelsea, on 29 August 1824. He was recorded in the 1881 census at 128 Sloane St as a picture restorer, age 57. He died unmarried on 25 November 1883, at the age of 60 (The Times 29 November 1883). His will was proved by his sister, Elizabeth Smith, in January 1884 with estate of £482, subsequently increased to £1294 (information from Lorne Campbell).

Notice should also be taken of John Edward Collingwood Bentley (c.1800/3-1853 or later), the slightly younger brother-in-law of John Bentley, who was christened at St Martin-in-the-Fields in 1803. He married twice, firstly to Sarah Warner in 1823 at St Dunstan in the West, and secondly to Isabella Dolley in 1848 in the Marylebone registration district. He was insured as a dealer in china, glass and curiosities at 192 Regent St in 1823 with the Sun Fire Office (Guildhall Library: Records of Sun Fire Office, vol.498 no.1005962). It is not always possible to distinguish between John Edward Collingwood Bentley’s directory entries and those for his brother-in-law but it would appear that he traded as a curiosity dealer at 192 Regent St until 1834 and at 3 Great Newport St 1835-6 and as a picture and curiosity dealer at 16 Bedford St, Covent Garden 1838-49. In the 1851 census he was living at 21 Northumberland St, Marylebone, a picture dealer, age 51, born St Marylebone, with wife Isabella, age 21, and two young sons. He was imprisoned for 18 months in 1853 for feloniously forging and uttering a warrant for the payment of £10, with intent to defraud (Proceedings of the Old Bailey). He has not been found in the 1861 census.

Restoration work: In giving evidence to the National Gallery Select Committee in 1853, John Bentley stated that he had been employed as a restorer by Thomas Baring, the Earl of Carlisle, the Duke of Bedford, the Earl of Pembroke, the Marquess of Ormond, Lord Brooke and many others.

Following the retirement of John Seguier (qv), John Bentley took on routine care of pictures in the collection of the National Gallery, sometimes undertaking studio work; this association began in 1855 or 1856 and was continued under his son Edward until at least 1879. Bentley worked on Bartolomeo Veneto's Lodovico Martinengo and Veronese’s Adoration of the Kings in 1856 (Penny 2004 p.4, Penny 2008 p.396). The same year he successfully bid at auction for the Gallery for four pictures from the Samuel Rogers collection (Dillian Gordon, National Gallery Catalogues: The fifteenth century Italian paintings, 2003, p.xxx).

In 1857, John Bentley was paid £391 for cleaning and restoring 103 Turner pictures (National Gallery Archive, NG13/1/3, Cash Book 1855-66). According to Sir Charles Eastlake, writing from Milan in 1860, ‘Bentley is acknowledged to be the best person to deal with damaged Turners and to him only can I consent that the Carthage should be entrusted’ (National Gallery Archive, NG5/139/5).

In 1859, Eastlake wrote to Ralph Wornum with a recommendation on treating a picture by Moretto in the National Gallery, 'I think the Bentleys (the father supervising the son) would be the safest & I do not like to neglect them' (Penny 2004 p.184). The following year, he wrote concerning Fra Angelico’s San Domenico predella, ‘If Mr Bentley has too much else to do perhaps Mr Buttery would be the most careful person to repair the local injuries – nothing else would be required’, but in the event it would appear that Bentley was responsible for the work (National Gallery Technical Bulletin, vol.23, 2002, p.7).

Following John Bentley's death in 1867, his son Edward was initially restricted to routine care of the collection, as for example when he was paid £50 in August 1867 ‘for attending and wiping and washing pictures, to Midsummer 1867’ (National Gallery Archive, NG13/1/4). The situation changed in the early 1870s, as less and less work was fed to Raffaelle Pinti (qv). In 1873 Edward Bentley repaired Mantegna’s Triumph of Scipio for £25 (National Gallery Archive, NG13/1/5). In 1880 he cleaned Rubens’s View of Het Steen in the Early Morning, Claude’s David at the Cave of Adullam, Dughet’s pair of landscapes, Landscape near Albano and Landscape in the Roman Campagna, and Bellotto’s Caprice Landscape with Ruins (National Gallery Archive, NG7/21/4).

Edward Bentley worked for the National Portrait Gallery on one occasion in 1883, shortly before his death, restoring Joshua Reynolds’s Sir William Hamilton for £25 (National Portrait Gallery records, Duplicates of Accounts, vol.2, p.40). Some years previously, he had informed George Scharf, the Gallery’s Director, that his charges for polishing pictures at the Gallery would be £1.10s per day, considerably higher than those of Manfred Holyoake (qv), who was among those employed to do the job (National Portrait Gallery records, 22.C.5, NPG History Various Notes Late 19th century).

For the Royal Collection, ‘Bentley’ made repairs to William Mulready’s The Wolf and the Lamb in 1855 (Millar, Later Georgian Pictures, p.87). J. & E. Bentley submitted three invoices for cleaning pictures for the 5th Duke of Portland, 1861-72 (Nottingham University Library, Portland papers, Pw K/4527-4529).

‘Mr Bentley of No.128 Sloane Street’, presumably John Bentley, was recommended by Charles Dickens to Angela Burdett-Coutts as a picture cleaner in May 1856 as 'the most honest and skilful of the craft' (Graham Storey & Kathleen Tillotson, The Letters of Charles Dickens, vol.8, 1985, p.118, where he is misnamed as William Bentley). Dickens refers to Bentley's work on the collection of Thomas Baring following a country house fire in which several famous pictures had been damaged. Later the same year, Dickens arranged for Bentley to make recommendations on some 24 Burdett-Coutts pictures, including some purchased at the sale of Samuel Rogers, in preparation for the Manchester Art Treasures exhibition, work which was completed by May 1857 (Letters pp.213, 215, 330). The correspondence is revealing: Bentley was described by Dickens as 'a very respectable grey-haired, high-dried little man, compounded of a Master of the Ceremonies in former years, a Collector of Assessed Taxes, a highly trustworthy Book-keeper, and a Parish Clerk of five and thirty years standing'. Dickens continued that Bentley regarded it as indispensable to have the pictures on his premises and could also restore the picture frames and regild them.

Sources: Biographical information kindly supplied by Lorne Campbell; Report from the Select Committee on the National Gallery, 1853. For abbreviations, see Resources and bibliography.

William Redmore Bigg, at Mr Vints, Tavistock Court, Covent Garden, London 1780-1781, 38 Long Acre 1782, Tavistock Row 1783-1791, 10 Tavistock Row 1783, 11 Tavistock Row 1790, Gate St, Lincoln's Inn Fields 1792-1800, 123 Great Russell St 1802-1822, 116 Great Russell St 1823-1827. Artist, dealer and picture restorer.

As a painter of countryside genre scenes and some portraits, William Redmore Bigg RA (1755-1828) exhibited extensively at the Royal Academy and elsewhere, 1780-1827. As a picture cleaner, Bigg was much favoured by his fellow Royal Academicians.

On Bigg’s ability as a restorer, John Constable called him ‘the most skilful in London’ in a letter draft concerning the repair of a frame (see British Museum collection database, 1896,0821.5). Bigg cleaned various works by J.M.W. Turner, according to Constable, ‘I remember most of Turner’s early pictures’, Constable told C.R. Leslie, ‘as they came occasionally to be rubbed out at Mr Bigg’s’ (Beckett 1964 p.244). Bigg cleaned Turner’s Dutch Boats and Fish Market (National Gallery) for Sir John Fleming Leicester in 1818, as Turner’s and Joseph Farington’s correspondence reveals (John Gage, ed., Collected Correspondence of J.M.W. Turner, Oxford, 1980, p.75; Farington vol.15, p.5313). There is also a payment in 1815-16 to N.R. Begg, perhaps a misreading for W.R. Bigg, for cleaning Turner pictures for the 3rd Earl of Egremont (West Sussex Record Office: Petworth House Archives, PHA/10,419); he also restored Sir Joshua Reynolds's Lord Rodney, bought by Lord Egremont and now at Petworth House (Beckett 1965 p.60).

Bigg also restored works of art belonging to Lord Lyttleton and Lord Guilford (Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, vol.5, 2004, p.688).

From 1811 until his death in 1821, Joseph Farington RA made numerous diary references to Bigg’s work in cleaning and treating pictures. In 1810 Bigg spent 12 weeks at Hagley Hall, Worcestershire, cleaning upwards of 150 family and some other pictures for Lord Lyttelton (Farington, vol.11, p.3844). In 1814 and 1815, as arranged by Farington, he cleaned 54 pictures, lining some of them, for Mr Hanbury of Kelmarsh, brought from Shobdon Court, Herefordshire, some at a charge of 4 guineas each, others of the Apostles attributed to Murillo at 6 guineas each (George Simpson (qv) was charging as much as 10 guineas for cleaning other pictures in this series). His bill for cleaning and lining these pictures came to about £154, which Farington described as ‘very moderate’ (Farington, vol.13, pp.4606, 4618, 4627, 4633, 4647, with inconsistencies as to the number of pictures and total cost).

In 1815, as proposed by Farington, Bigg visited Broke Hall, Suffolk, to examine and clean Sir Philip Broke’s pictures at a cost of 80 guineas for the job (Farington, vol.13, pp.4648, 4747). He also cleaned a picture by Wilson for Mrs Worsley which had been lined by ‘Miller’ (Farington vol.13, pp.4686, 4696-7). The following year, Bigg told Farington that he had some pictures to clean for Sir John St Aubyn, one or two of them by Wilson, including a View of the Thames (Farington, vol.14, pp.4837, 4840). In 1817, Bigg cleaned a small picture, a copy from Correggio, for Mrs Mary Lechmere, at Farington’s recommendation (Farington, vol.14, pp.5028, 5037).

In 1819, Bigg cleaned Joshua Reynolds’s Self-portrait, formerly belonging to the Marchioness of Thomond, for Joseph Farington and also Richard Wilson’s Adrian’s Villa, and he cleaned and repaired Wright of Derby’s Thomas Day for Captain Beaufort (Farington, vol.15, pp.5310, 5313, 5364). In 1821, Bigg cleaned Richard Wilson’s View of Rome for Miss Brooke (Farington, vol.16, p.5611).

By 1821, John Constable was directing picture cleaning work to Francis Collins (qv), claiming that ‘poor Mr Bigg is scarcely equal to what he already has’ (Beckett 1968 p.81). Despite declining health, Bigg continued work as a restorer. In September 1825 he visited Derbyshire to clean Lord Scarsdale’s pictures (Beckett 1964 p.245). He was paid £8.8s by Sir John Soane in 1827 for cleaning Joshua Reynolds’s The Snake in the Grass (Sir John Soane’s Museum, information from Hilary Floe and Helen Dorey).

For abbreviations, see Resources and bibliography.

William Biggs 1835-1852, Biggs & Sons 1853-1856, Biggs & Son 1857-1868, W.H. Biggs & Co 1869-1884, Walter Henry Biggs & Co 1885 (as fine art dealers). At 31 Conduit St ('one door from Bond Street') 1835-1878, 7 Maddox St 1879-1884, 65 Mortimer St, Cavendish Square 1885. Carvers, gilders and framemakers, picture restorers, print publishers, later picture dealers.

See British picture framemakers, under John Harris, on the National Portrait Gallery website.

Nicolai? Biondi, London by 1770?, Oxford Road, London 1775, 1786. Picture restorer.

Biondi, an Italian picture restorer, from Naples according to Joshua Reynolds, is probably to be identified as Nicolai Biondi (fl.1770-87). He was in London by 1775 when he was mentioned as owning a painting by Correggio (Public Advertiser 8 June 1775), and by 1770 if he can be identified with Nicolai Biondi, whose wife, Margaritae, gave birth to a daughter, ‘Joa. Biondi’, christened that year at the Roman Catholic Lincoln’s Inn Fields Chapel. A sale of Italian paintings and drawings, promoted as belonging to ‘Signor Biondi, going abroad’, including one of Biondi’s own works, was held by Christie & Ansell, 21-22 February 1777 (catalogue in V&A National Art Library).

In October 1786 Joshua Reynolds wrote to Charles, 4th Duke of Rutland, that he had been recommended to a Neapolitan, almost certainly Biondi, as having an extraordinary secret for cleaning pictures, explaining that this restorer possessed a liquid which he applied ‘with a soft sponge only, and without any violence of friction takes off all the dirt & varnish without touching or in the least affecting the Colours; with all my experience in picture cleaning he really amazed me’. Before entrusting Biondi with the cleaning of the Duke’s newly acquired Sacraments by Nicolas Poussin, Reynolds experimented by giving him a couple of ‘what I thought the most difficult Pictures to clean of any in my house’, adding that his success was so complete that he thought that he could securely trust him with the Sacraments. These paintings were then lined and cleaned in Reynolds’s own house under his personal supervision, ‘taking care to be allways present when he was at work’ (Ingamells 2000, no.162). The work cost £15.7s (Talley 1986 p.68). Reynolds went on to recommend Biondi to the Earl of Hardwick the following year, mentioning that he lived in Oxford Road (Ingamells 2000, no.175).

For abbreviations, see Resources and bibliography.

Charles Birch, Newman St, Oxford St, London 1795, 88 Newman St 1796, 13 Margaret St, Cavendish Square 1799. Picture restorer and picture dealer.

Charles Birch (c.1773-1856?) was a pupil of William Comyns (qv). He set up independently, perhaps in 1796 when he advertised as a picture restorer, stating that he had been 'nine years Pupil to Mr Comyns of Crown Street Westminster', and offering to clean and repair pictures (Star 16 February 1796, Morning Chronicle 18 February 1796, The Times 20 February 1796). The artist, Joseph Farington, called on ‘C. Birch’ in December 1798 and purchased a picture; he called again in February 1802, describing him as ‘Birch the picture cleaner’, to see a landscape by Wilson priced at 40 guineas (Farington vol.3, p.1110, vol.5, p.1750). In April 1807, Farington noted Benjamin West’s mortification that ‘Burch the picture cleaner’ had been putting colour on many parts of Titian’s Bachus and Ariadne (now National Gallery, see Farington vol.8, p.3009).

It would appear that this picture restorer and picture dealer is to be identified with Charles Birch of Newman St, who married Sophia Harris in 1795 at St Pancras Old Church (St James’s Chronicle 31 October 1795). They had five children, two christened at St Mary Marylebone in 1798 and 1802 and three at St Mary Lambeth in 1807 and 1810. When William Harris of New Palace Yard died in late 1804 or very early 1805, he made his son-in-law, Charles Birch, one of his executors.

Many years later, Sophia Birch of Russel Villa, Finchley New Road, St John’s Wood, referred in her will, made 19 April 1848 and proved 5 November 1849, to her late father, William Harris. Charles Birch would appear to have left off picture restoration and dealing when he benefited from the estate of William Harris, and he then became a picture collector. He may possibly be the widowed proprietor of houses, age 78, listed at 38 Finchley Road in the 1851 census, whose death was recorded in 1856 as of Springfield Villa, Kilburn. His will was made 4 March and proved 17 April 1856, listing numerous properties to be distributed among his various children and relatives.

In Wakefield’s directory in 1794, a picture cleaner by the name of J. Birch was recorded in Greek St, Soho.

For abbreviations, see Resources and bibliography.

Henry Resta Bolton, Stoke Damerel, Devon 1841, 88 Navy Row, Morice Town, Plymouth 1850, 16 Alfred St, Plymouth 1851-1852, 3 Valle Torte Place, Stoke Villas, 18 Valletort Terrace, Stoke 1862, 1871. Picture restorer and artist.

Henry Resta Bolton (c.1792-1871) had an extensive practice as a picture restorer in the 1840s, 1850s and 1860s, ranging from Devon across the country and including London. His activities have been explored by Christine Sitwell, to whom this text is indebted. Her account draws on documentation held by Plymouth Museum and Art Gallery.

Henry Resta Bolton was born at Newport, Hampshire, according to the 1851 census. He can be traced in successive censuses, in 1841 at Stoke Damerel, in 1851 at 16 Alfred St, Plymouth, recorded as an artist, age 59, with his wife Sarah, age 55, and four grown up daughters, and in 1861 at Devonport, Stoke Damerel. He died on 24 March 1871, age 79, in the Stoke Damerel registration district (The Times 11 April 1871; Free BMD), writing the week before his death, ‘I am now about to enter into my eightieth year and from this day make a firm protest against any further visits to Taverns. I owe nothing to any Landlord…’ (Sitwell 1998 p.138, note 9).

In giving evidence to the National Gallery Select Committee in 1853, Bolton stated that he had acquired his knowledge of picture restoration by large practice and study, and that he had been employed chiefly in the collections of noblemen and gentlemen in the country, although occasionally in London. He cited the collections of Lord Morley, Lord Fortescue, Lord St Germain, Lord Mount Edgcumbe, Lord Lansdowne, Lord Salisbury and Lord Cowper.

In Devon, Bolton worked at various country houses in the 1840s (account books, Plymouth City Museum and Art Gallery). At Saltram House, Bolton restored more than 110 pictures, visiting the house eight times between 1840 and 1845, spending three weeks there in 1840 and 1841, during which he treated 67 pictures, including six large pictures on the staircase by Angelica Kauffmann, but lined very few of the pictures (Sitwell 1998 pp.131-2). Subsequently, he restored four paintings at Antony House in 1848 (his thumbnail sketches of two of them repr. Sitwell 1998 p.134) and 1866, Crowcombe Court, Mount Edgcumbe, Prideaux Place, Whiteway and other West Country houses (Sitwell 1998 p.135).

Bolton travelled across southern England. He was at The Grove, Watford from August 1842 until Christmas, as he told W.H. Pole-Carew in a letter in March 1843 (Auerbach 1971 p.263), and he had an account with the artists’ suppliers, Roberson, from this address in November 1842 (Woodcock 1997). In the same letter, written from Hatfield House, Hertfordshire, Bolton told Pole-Carew, ‘I am now cleaning and restoring the entire collection of the Marquess of Salisbury which consists of about 200 pictures, but which I shall have finished by June.’

He worked for Col. Wyndham at Petworth, Sussex, and also at his London house, 4 Grosvenor Place, in 1847. At Petworth he submitted a list of pictures varnished in 1854, also compiling a list of pictures cleaned, commencing 25 October 1856, illustrated with thumbnail sketches of the pictures (West Sussex Record Office: Petworth House Archives, PHA 7526, 7527, title page repr. Blunt 1979 p.123).

According to a letter from Bolton to his son, Edwin, he also worked at Highclere Castle, restoring portraits in 1859 (Sitwell 1998 p.135), moving on to Lord Palmerston’s at Broadlands, where he had in 1856 treated Joshua Reynolds's The Laughing Girl (Iveagh Bequest, Kenwood, see Bryant 2003 p.350). He refers to future work for the Earl of Suffolk, suggesting that his son might assist (Sitwell 1998 p.135).

In London, according to Bolton, he worked in summer 1849 restoring pictures for the Marquess of Lansdowne in Berkeley Square (National Gallery Archive, NGA/11/1/1). At this time and again in 1850 and 1854 he made detailed notes on the condition of pictures in the National Gallery, including those cleaned by John Seguier (qv) in 1852 (National Gallery Archive, NGA/11/1/5). In 1854 he appears to have worked on other collections in London, including those of Mr S. Prowett at the Picture Gallery, 77 Regent St, Mr Gates at 10 Warwick St, Regent St and Mr Bryant in St James’s St (National Gallery Archive, NGA/11/1/6).

Sources: Christine Sitwell, 'Approach to Restoration in English Country Houses', in Christine Sitwell and Sarah Staniforth (eds.), Studies in the History of Painting Restoration, 1998, pp.129-138; Christine Sitwell, ‘Henry Resta Bolton, a Nineteenth-Century Picture Restorer’, The Picture Restorer, autumn 2000, pp.26-28; information on Col. Wyndham and Petworth from Christopher Rowell 6 March 2008. For abbreviations, see Resources and bibliography.

James Bolton, see Manfred Holyoake


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