British picture restorers, 1630-1950 - H

William Henry & Frederick Haines 1848-1857, William Henry Haines 1857-1884. At 34 Wyndham St, Bryanston Square, London 1848-1857, 70 Sloane St 1858, not listed 1859, 30 Wyndham St 1860-1884. Picture restorers.

William Henry Haines (1811-1884) was the son of Phoebe Seguier and George Hobson Haines (1780-1854). His mother was the daughter of the picture adviser and restorer, William Seguier (qv); his father was a stamp officer in the public service according to the 1841 and 1851 censuses.

William Henry Haines traded in partnership with his younger brother Frederick (see below) from 1848. Their partnership as Messrs Haines, picture cleaners and restorers at 34 Wyndham St, was dissolved in July 1857, with William Henry Haines taking responsibility for outstanding liabilities (London Gazette 4 August 1857). Both brothers continued in business independently.

In directory listings, William Henry Haines was recorded as a picture restorer in Wyndham St and as an artist in Sloane St and then in Montpelier St. Throughout his life, he exhibited at the Royal Academy, the British Institution, the Society of British Artists and elsewhere, both from his home address and his business premises. He lived at 36 William St, Hampstead 1848-58 (he was also listed at 13 Hartland Road, Camden Town 1855-8), 70 Sloane St 1858-75 and 44 Montpelier St 1875-84. In census records, in 1861 William Henry Haines, artist, age 49, was living at 70 Sloane St with his wife Mary Ann, age 47, and his older cousin, Caroline Seguier, head of the household, in 1871 at the same address, and in 1881 at 44 Montpelier St, still with his cousin, now recorded as Mabel Caroline Seguier, age 83. He died in 1884 (The Times 28 June 1884). He was followed in listings for Montpelier St by Miss Seguier in 1885.

Frederick Haines 1859-1877, Frederick Haines & Sons 1878-1916, F.H. Haines 1916-1917, Herbert George Haines 1917-1931. At 39 Michael's Place, Brompton, London 1859-1862, 23 Fulham Road 1863-1881, 25 Fulham Road 1879-1886, 8 Alfred Place West, Thurloe Square (‘adjoining South Kensington station') 1886-1916, 3 Thurloe Studios, Thurloe Square 1916-1931. Picture restorers, later also art experts, restorative artists and art dealers.

Frederick Haines (1814-89) initially traded with his older brother, William Henry Haines (see above). When their partnership broke up in 1857, he set up independently. Three of his sons joined the business which continued until 1931, shortly before the death of the youngest son.

Frederick Haines married Eliza Webster in 1846 in the Kensington registration district. In census returns, he appears in 1841, age 25, living at William St, Regents Park, with his parents George Hobson and Phoebe, in 1861 described as an artist at 39 Michael's Place, Kensington with his mother-in-law, Eliza Webster, his wife and five young children, in 1871 as an artist picture restorer, age 56, at 23 Fulham Road with wife Eliza, daughters Agnes and Emma, and sons Frederick and Sidney, also recorded as artist picture restorers, and Herbert, a scholar, and in 1881 at 23 Fulham Road with wife Eliza and daughters Agnes and Emma.

The three sons: The business continued as Frederick Haines & Sons until 1916, when it moved to 3 Thurloe Studios, with both brothers trading independently.

The eldest son, Frederick Henry Haines (1847-1917), worked in the business until shortly before his death in 1917. In censuses, in 1881 he was recorded as an artist picture restorer, living at 40 Walham Grove with wife Laura, in 1891 at 3 Whittingstall Road, Brompton, as an artist and art expert, with wife Laura, and in 1901 and 1911 at 422 Fulham Road, in 1901 as an artist, still with Laura, and with two sons, Frederick D., a print sellers clerk, age 19, and Sydney H.S., age 13, and three daughters, and in 1911 as an art expert and valuer, by now a widower, living with two daughters. After the breakup of the partnership in 1916, Frederick Henry Haines undertook some work from home at The Lilacs, 422 Fulham Road.

The second son, Sidney Alfred Haines (1854-1909), also appears to have worked in the business In censuses, he was listed at 25 Fulham Road, age 26, together with his younger brother, Herbert George Haines (1857-1933), both described as ‘Restorative Artist, Dealer Works of Art', and in 1891 and 1901 at 3 Gilstone Road, Brompton, as an artist, living with his sisters. He died at this address on 31 December 1909 (The Times 3 January 1910).

The third son, Herbert George Haines (1857-1933), carried on the business after 1917. In census records, he was listed in 1881, age 24, with his brother, Sidney at 25 Fulham Road, in 1891 at 8 Ashchurch Park, Hammersmith as a restorative artist (pictures) and art expert, with wife Ellen, and son Leonard H., age 1, in 1901 at Ashchurch Park Villas as a fine art expert and artist, again with his wife and son, and in 1911 at Wolverton Lodge, Goldhawk Road, as an art expert, with his wife and 21-year-old son, Leonard Herbert, a chemistry student. He held a warrant by appointment to King George V as picture restorer and cleaner from 1921 until 1931 (London Gazette 4 January 1921, 2 January 1931). He died in 1933 (The Times 24 February 1934). His widow, Mrs H.G. Haines, gave a portrait of William Seguier (qv) to the National Portrait Gallery in 1933.

Restoration work: The business had accounts with the artists' supplier, Roberson, 1857-1931, in the names of Frederick Haines, Frederick Haines & Son, Frederick H. Haines and Herbert G. Haines, from 39 Michaels Place, and then from 23 Fulham Road, 8 Alfred Place West and 3 Thurloe Studios, 5 Thurloe Square (Woodcock 1997). Frederick Haines undertook restoration work on behalf of Roberson, 1862-71, as recorded in Roberson's ‘bought' ledgers where entries inconsistently record details such as subject and artist, sometimes with Roberson's client's name in a coded form, e.g. ‘Sir J P', whom it is possible to identify in Roberson's sales ledgers with Sir John Palmer of Carlton Park, Rockingham, for whom Roberson cleaned and restored various portraits in 1862 and 1863 (Hamilton Kerr Institute, Cambridge, MS 180-1993).

‘Haines' was among the restorers used by Richard Redgrave, Surveyor of the Queen's Pictures, to treat pictures in the Royal Collection (Millar 1977 p.189). ‘F & F.H. Haines' held an appointment to Queen Victoria as picture cleaners and restorers from at least 1885 (London Gazette 27 January 1885), and from 1882 as Picture Cleaners in Ordinary to the Queen (Charles Noble, 'Fashion in the gallery: The Picture Gallery's changing hang', Apollo, vol.138, 1993, pp.170-5, n.23). Haines restored Francesco Salviati's Virgin and Child with an angel in 1901 (Shearman 1983 p.217) The business continued to work for the Royal Collection under Lionel Cust, appointed Surveyor in 1901, who recalled how F.H. Haines, ‘the skilled picture restorer', had cleaned pictures at Bridgewater House and subsequently worked at Buckingham Palace, including cleaning Joshua Reynolds's Philippe Duke of Orleans and Frederick Duke of York (Lionel Cust, King Edward VII and his Court, 1930, pp.29-30). However, when Rubens's Banqueting House ceiling paintings needed restoration in 1906, Messrs Haines declined to give an estimate, in part because they were ‘too old to do ceiling scaffold work' (Martin 2005 p.123).

The Haines family business worked extensively for the National Portrait Gallery between 1878 and 1919 (National Portrait Gallery records, Duplicates of Accounts, vols 1-8). It is worth noting that Sir George Scharf, Director of the National Portrait Gallery, had cartes-de-visite photographic portraits of the Frederick Haines, both father and son, in his carte-de-visite album (National Portrait Gallery, Ax17171-2). Some of the more expensive work included ‘placing in thorough order' the Honthorst studio Elizabeth, Queen of Bohemia for £3.10s and lining and cleaning David Allan's Sir William Hamilton for £10.2s.6d, both in 1879, lining and cleaning a portrait, Admiral Hood for £15 in 1881, placing in order and lining Thomas Lawrence's full-length John Kemble (Tate) for the considerable sum of £31.15s in 1883, cleaning and repairing H.W. Pickersgill's William Wordsworth for £11.5s in 1891, lining, cleaning and restoring George Romney's Adam Walker and family for £8.10s in 1898, lining, cleaning and varnishing Sir Humphry Davy after Thomas Lawrence for £6.16s.6d in 1910 and repairing John Everett Millais's Thomas Carlyle for £25 in 1914 following damage by a suffragette.

For the Wallace Collection, Haines & Sons treated various pictures between 1899 and 1912 including George Romney's Mrs Mary Robinson, Carlo Crivelli's St Roch, Francesco Guardi's Venice: the Dogana with the Giudecca, and Titian's Perseus and Andromeda (Ingamells 1985 pp.172, 266, 287, 349; see also Ingamells 1989 pp.68, 73, 197, 198, 332). Haines not only cleaned the Titian in the Wallace Collection; he had previously cleaned Diana and Callisto and Diana and Actaeon for the Duke of Sutherland (Ingamells 1985 p.358, n.6, quoting C. Phillips, The Nineteenth Century and After, May 1900, p.799).

The business provided an estimate of apparatus necessary for repairing pictures to the Victoria and Albert Museum in 1892 (Brooks 1999 p.132, quoting Victoria and Albert Museum Archive, ED 84 134, 13919).

F. Haines & Sons worked for the collector, George Salting, 1872-1907 (Stephen Coppel, ‘George Salting (1835-1909)', in Griffiths 1996 p.202, n.43; see also Guildhall Library, MS 19472, Salting's cashbooks). ‘Haines' restored Sir Peter Lely's Barbara Villiers, Duchess of Cleveland at Cirencester Park in 1906 (Bathurst 1908 p.56).

For abbreviations, see Resources and bibliography.

Hayman & Pugh, active 1774. Picture restorers.

Hayman & Pugh worked for the Duke of Norfolk in 1774 but have otherwise not been traced, unless Pugh can be identified with the Irish artist, Herbert Pugh, who came to England in about 1758. In their bill of 26 December 1774 for £97.7s.9d for cleaning, repairing and varnishing 84 pictures for the Duke at Worksop Manor, Hayman & Pugh claimed that ‘The Paintings were in a very bad Condition and Greatly milldewed and the painting scaling of[f] which made it very Difficult to restore' (Sotheby's, English Literature and History, 16 December 1996 lot 102; photocopy in Arundel Castle archive). They charged £5.5s for treating Holbein's Duchess of Milan (National Gallery), £3.3s for the whole length Earl of Surrey (presumably National Portrait Gallery, on display at Arundel Castle), and listed work on other portraits attributed to Holbein and Van Dyck, as well as views, still lives, historical and religious subjects.

Johannes Hell, Berlin to 1937, London from 1937, 18 Carlton Hill, NW8 1938-1942, 3 Eldon Grove, NW3 1948-1974. Picture restorer.

Dr Johannes Hell (1897-1974) trained in Berlin, taking an internship in 1932 at the Kaiser Friedrich Museum, Berlin under Helmut Ruhemann (qv). He worked there as a restorer, 1933-5, before fleeing to England in 1937. His approach to cleaning and retouching pictures was more conservative than that of Ruhemann, differences which were already in evidence as early as 1933, when he published an article rejecting radical restoration of paintings and pleading for aesthetic ‘invisible' retouching methods (see Runeberg 2005 pp.345-6). These differences in approach re-emerged in England in the 1940s and were partly responsible for the controversy around cleaning pictures at the National Gallery in 1946 and 1947.

Hell worked as a freelance restorer in London from 1937. He was asked by the National Gallery in 1947 to clean Ambrogio de Preda's Portrait of a Girl, but delays led to difficulties in his relationship with the National Gallery (Runeberg 2005 p.357). Nevertheless, Hell worked extensively for other collections, chiefly Dulwich Picture Gallery but also the Royal Collection, the Tate Gallery and the Fitzwilliam Museum. For the Royal Collection he cleaned Van Dyck's Cupid and Psyche (Millar 1968 p.307).

In a discussion of Dulwich Picture Gallery, Hell was praised in 1953 for his scrupulous regard for works of art (Editorial, Burlington Magazine, vol.95, 1953, p.229, information from John Ingamells). At Dulwich, he restored many pictures, 1945-70, including David Teniers's A Castle and its Proprietors, Bartolomé Murillo's Madonna of the Rosary and Paulo Veronese's St Jerome and a donor, 1948-53 (Dulwich Picture Gallery, see Waterfield 1995 pp.27, 39, 42).

At Sir John Soane's Museum, the Trustees decided in December 1952 that ‘Dr Hell should proceed with superficial cleaning in so far as... money... permitted... priority being given to the Lawrence portrait, the Hogarths and the Durno.' (information from Hilary Floe and Helen Dorey). In 1953, he cleaned Thomas Lawrence's Sir John Soane, and in the case of Hogarth's series, The Rake's Progress and The Election, he was responsible for ‘Removing varnish and over-painting and applying a thin coat of mastic varnish'. In 1955, he impregnated with wax resin the canvases of the three Canalettos, Riva degli Schiavoni looking West, A View in Venice with the Rialto (which was also subject to removal of repainting and then retouching) and A View in Venice: the Piazza di San Marco (information from Hilary Floe and Helen Dorey).

At Apsley House, Hell cleaned An Unknown Man, ascribed to Murillo, in 1951 (Kauffmann 1982 p.99). At the Fitzwilliam Museum he cleaned the Rembrandt school Man in Fanciful Costume in 1949 (McClure 1998 p.249).

Between 1945 and 1950, Hell cleaned 13 of the works included in the William Blake exhibition in 1951 (see Geoffrey Keynes, ‘Introduction', The Tempera Paintings of William Blake, exh.cat., Arts Council, 1951, p.7), including The Spiritual Condition of Man (Fitzwilliam Museum), Satan calling up his Legions (Victoria and Albert Museum) and The Agony in the Garden (Tate).

Sources: Runeberg 2005, to which this account is indebted; information kindly supplied by John Ingamells, 2005, on Hell's work at Dulwich. For abbreviations, see Resources and bibliography.

Nigel Henderson. Artist and photographer, initially a picture restorer.

Nigel Graeme Henderson (1917-1985) began his career as full-time assistant picture restorer to Helmut Ruhemann (qv) at the National Gallery, 1936-9 (The Times 24 May 1985). He became a well-respected artist in the 1950s, described by David Sylvester as 'a seminal figure in post-war British art' and 'an artist who took photographs'.

Sources: Obituary, The Times 24 May 1985; Victoria Walsh, Nigel Henderson: Parallel of Life and Art, 2001, pp.15, 154; Mel Gooding, ‘Henderson, Nigel Graeme (1917-1985)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, vol.26, 2004, pp.332-3.

N.F. Henley, 7 Oaklands Grove, Shepherds Bush, London 1879-1881 or later, 17 Brackenbury Road, Hammersmith by 1891-1904 or later. Mounter of prints and drawings, occasional paper restorer and framemaker.

Nigel Felix Henley (c.1856-1913) was the third of five sons of the printer, bookbinder and picture framemaker, William Henley, and his wife, Emma. He was the younger brother of the poet, critic and editor, William Ernest Henley, who became editor of The Magazine of Art. It was through his brother that he came across Robert Louis Stevenson, in whose correspondence he was mentioned very occasionally for his framing work between 1879 and 1901 (B.A. Booth and E. Mehew, The Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson, 1994-5, vol.2, p.298, vol.5, p.66 note, vol.6, p.27).

Nigel Henley can be traced through successive censuses. In 1861, as a young boy he was living with his parents and his four brothers at Longford St Mary, near Gloucester. By 1871, he had lost his father, and he can be found as a young clerk with his widowed mother and three of his brothers at 11 Holland Road, Kensington. In 1881 he was recorded as a commercial clerk, age 24, still with his mother, Emma, and three of his brothers, now at 7 Oaklands Grove, Hammersmith. By 1891 he had set up house at 17 Brackenbury Road, Hammersmith, where he was recorded as a mounter of drawings, with his older brother, Anthony Henley, landscape painter. He married in the Brentford registration district in 1893 and was listed in the 1901 census as a picture frame and mount maker, with wife, Emily, age 29, and two sons, and in 1911 still at 17 Brackenbury Road with his family, as a mounter of drawings, working on his own account at home. He died in the Uxbridge registration district at the age of 56 in 1913.

At one stage Henley worked for the British Museum. Subsequently in 1897, when advertising mounts and frames, portfolios and solander cases, he noted that he had ‘cut and prepared all the Mounts used during several years by the Department of Prints and Drawings', offering ‘to furnish Mounts of the finest style and finish, for Frames or Portfolios, in every variety of Material. Speciality in French Mounts: toned papers with handsome lines. To clean, restore, and inlay all manner of Prints and Drawings; To manufacture Frames, to any design, in any wood; And to manufacture Portfolios and Solanders.' (The Year's Art 1897, p.20).

Henley mounted sets of Joseph Pennell's 20 London etchings in 1894, housing them in deep red solander cases with gilt lettering (Elizabeth R. Pennell, The Life and Letters of Joseph Pennell, Boston, 1929, vol.1, p.269). He also worked for the collector, George Salting, 1901-4, mainly mounting drawings, but on one occasion removing a crease from a Rembrandt etching, and on another, ‘Detaching & mounting 4 Constable drawings in Creswick mount, best gold flat, polished sheet glass, pine [back] board' for £1.5s (Guildhall Library, MS 19474).

John Marshman Hill by 1833-1846 or later, Hill & Son by 1848-1864, Edward Lyons Hill by 1870-1896. At 9 Kingsmead, Bath by 1833-1837 or later, 4 Wood St, Queen Square, Bath by 1842-1896, also 11 John St by 1882-1884 or later. Carvers and gilders, from c.1850 picture restorers and picture dealers.

The business seems to have originated in the 18th century with that of the carver and gilder, John Deare, for whom see the directory, British picture framemakers, on the National Portrait Gallery website. In 1833 John Marshman Hill advertised from his looking-glass warehouse at 9 Kingsmead St as J.M. Hill, late Deare & Hill, carver, gilder, glass and picture frame manufacturer, offering glasses of large dimensions at London terms (H. Silverthorne's Bath Directory). By 1842 Hill was trading from 4 Wood St, previously the premises of J. Harrison, carver and gilder (who also offered a picture cleaning service).

John Marshman Hill (c.1792/4-c.1864/71) and his wife Mary had two sons, Edward Lyons Hill (1820-1900) and John Marshman Hill (1822-44), both born in Bath. John Marshman Hill, the father worked in partnership with his son, Edward Lyons, until 1864, when their business as Hill & Son, gilders and picture restorers, trading ‘for some years past', was dissolved (London Gazette 3 May 1864).

Census records provide further information. John Marshman Hill, the father, was born at Trowbridge, Wiltshire. In 1851, he was described as a widower, age 57, with a teenage daughter and two teenage sons at 5 Wood St, Walcot, Bath, working as a picture dealer and restorer and employing six men. By 1861 he had moved to 4 Wood St, Walcot, age now given as 69, a gilder employing five men and two boys. He presumably died before 1871.

His son, Edward Lyons Hill, was recorded in 1851 at Kingsmead, Walcot, as a restorer of ancient paintings, with wife, Sarah Ann, and two young sons, Edward and John. He then moved into his father's former house, 4 Wood St, Walcot, where he was recorded in the 1871, 1881 and 1891 censuses. In 1871 as a picture restorer and gilder, employing two men and two boys, with his wife and nephew, Frederick, age 17, a gilder. In 1881 as a picture restorer and frame maker, employing three men and two boys, with his wife. In 1891, by now age 70, as a picture restorer and gilder, a widower, with his granddaughter, Elizabeth. He died at 11 Argyle St, age 79, in February 1900 (London Gazette 16 March 1900).

By 1850, the business was also listed as picture dealers and in 1864 as gilders and picture restorers. Hill's impressed stamp, reading HILL/ LINER/ BATH, can be found on the stretcher of Thomas Gainsborough's John Palmer (Philadelphia Museum of Art, see Richard Dorment, British Paintings in the Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1986, p.127).

Joseph Hogarth 1835-1868, Joseph Hogarth & Sons 1869-1890. At 60 Great Portland St, London 1835-1845, 5 Haymarket 1845-1866, 96 Mount St 1866-1886, 473 Oxford St 1887-1890. Printsellers, picture framemakers and mounters of drawings.

See see British picture framemakers on the National Portrait Gallery website.

Edward Holder, 32 Brook St, Hull 1838, 29 Scale Lane, Hull 1842, 46 George St, Hull 1846, 35 King St, Worship St, Hull by 1851-1855 or later, artist and picture restorer. Edwin Holder 1841-1853, Henry Wharrey Holder 1854-1857, 388 Oxford St, London 1841-1842, 355 Oxford St 1843-1857, picture cleaners and restorers, dealers and artists.

The Holder picture restoration business continued in one form or another over five generations from the early 1800s until the 1970s. Edward Holder was followed by his sons Edwin, Henry and, trading independently, William (see below). William was followed by his son, William Boulter Holder, trading as William Holder & Sons from 1886, and then by his grandson, William Addison Holder, who went into partnership with William Vallance, who was followed by his own son, Roy Vallance.

Edward Holder: The Yorkshire artist, Edward Holder (1783-1865) was born in Burlington in Yorkshire in 1783 and married Jane Watson in 1808 at Holy Trinity, Hull. They had seven children of whom the three sons became restorers, Edwin (1809-64), William (1817-87) and Henry Wharrey (1824-80). The family is said to have moved to London in about 1810. Edward Holder does not appear to be recorded in Hull directories before 1838. He would appear to be the individual who died in the Hull registration district in 1865.

From the account book of the London picture restorer, Robert Brown (qv) for 1802, 1803 and 1824, it is apparent that Edward Holder had a brother, John, and probably another, William. It should be noted that Henry William Holder was trading as a restorer of paintings at 20 Portland Place in Hull in 1861. The activities of the extended Holder family in London and Yorkshire in the early 19th century require further clarification.

Two portraits of Shakespeare attributed to 'Holder, a picture cleaner', were identified as spurious in a review of 1829 (Gentleman's Magazine, vol.99, 1829, p.49). ‘Grandfather' Holder is said to have worked at Petworth, cleaning the most important pictures, apparently with sensitivity despite a malicious story spread by the artist, Thomas Phillips, that Claude's Laban had been damaged in the process (Blunt 1979 p.122). Edward Holder cleaned Simon Verelst's Prince Rupert for Lord Egremont (Brockwell 1915 p.327).

Edward Holder undertook cleaning and restoration work for Charles Winn at Nostell Priory, Yorkshire, and sold him pictures in the 1840s (Brockwell 1915 p.63). He was the first of four generations of the family to work on the Nostell collection (Brockwell 1915). In 1848 Edward Holder wrote from Hull offering Winn a portrait and in 1862 he sold him Henry Stone's Charles I (Brockwell 1915 pp.196, 204).

Edwin Holder: Edwin Holder (1809-64), Edward's son, was christened at Sculcoates, Yorkshire, on 17 September 1809. He may be the individual who married Charlotte Graff at St Clement Danes on 4 January 1830. A miniature painter, ‘E. Holder', was recorded at 33 Queen St in Robson's London directory from 1836 to 1840. In 1841, Edwin Holder described himself in the Post Office London directory as ‘Professor of cleaning and restoring damaged pictures', later changing this to ‘Professor of the Art of cleaning and restoring damaged pictures'. He was recorded in the 1841 census as a picture cleaner, age 31, living with his wife Charlotte, age 32, and their daughter Charlotte, age 12, and in 1851 at Bray in Berkshire, his sight recorded as defective, living with his wife, daughter Charlotte, age 20, also a picture restorer, and Frederick Bridell, an apprentice (see below).

Edwin Holder continued the family's connection with Nostell, and is described as treating a Claude, four works by Salvator Rosa, three by Richard Wilson, four by Van de Velde and a portrait by Peter Lely (C. Aitchison Hull, Frederick Lee Bridell 1830-63, 2007, pp.8-9, referring to letters from Holder in Leeds Archives). At Nostell, ‘E. Holder' relined Allan Ramsay's Charles Erskine in 1842 and cleaned an Elsheimer in 1849 (Brockwell pp.196, 242). He is said to have worked on collections in Lincolnshire, Yorkshire, Chichester and London (C. Aitchison Hull, Frederick Lee Bridell 1830-63, 2007, p.9).

After retiring from picture cleaning in London, Holder showed paintings at various exhibitions, 1859-64, including the British Institution, the Society of British Artists and the Liverpool Academy. He was exhibiting from Church Terrace, Isleworth 1859-60, Bootham Stray, York 1860-1 (where recorded at Bootham Stray Cottage in the 1861 census as an artist and restorer of paintings), Ivy Cottage, Heworth, York 1861-3 and Wragby Grange, Wakefield 1864. It was Edwin Holder, rather than his father, who died at Nostell Priory on 8 February 1864 while undertaking restoration work for Charles Winn (Maurice Brockwell 1915 p.67); his death was recorded in 1864 in the Hemsworth registration district in Yorkshire.

When visiting Southhampton in about 1848, Edwin Holder took an apprentice, a talented young self-taught artist, Frederick Lee Bridell (1830-63), on the basis that he would cover Bridell's expenses in return for all his pictures with a further percentage to be paid to the artist on the sale of his work. Bridell painted Holder's portrait in 1850, showing him holding a magnifying glass and a stretcher with unlined canvas (sold Christies 24 May 2006, reidentified and repr. C. Aitchison Hull, Frederick Lee Bridell 1830-63, 2007, pl.I).

For a few years from 1854, Edwin Holder was followed in business as a picture restorer at 355 Oxford St by his younger brother, Henry Wharrey Holder (1824-80), who used the same trade description, additionally calling himself an artist and also giving another address, 7 Upper Church St, Brompton in 1854 and 1855. Henry Wharrey Holder was born in 1824 and christened the same year at St Leonards, Shoreditch. In 1861 he was living with his brother, William Holder (qv). He died in 1880 at the age of 56 in the Scarborough registration district.

Sources: Maurice Brockwell, Catalogue of the Pictures and other Works of Art in the Collection of Lord St Oswald at Nostell Priory, 1915, pp.63, 65, also pp.66, 67, 68, 88, 94, 215, 365; C. Aitchison Hull, Frederick Lee Bridell 1830-63, 2007, pp.8-9, 21, 34. For abbreviations, see Resources and bibliography.

William Holder 1848-1885, picture cleaner and artist, William Holder & Sons 1886-1974, picture cleaners and restorers. At 28 Coventry St, Haymarket, London 1848-1850, 6 Great Queen St, Lincoln's Inn 1850-1857, 6 Haymarket 1858-1867, Leicester Place, Leicester Square 1868-1870 as a picture dealer, 33 Brewer St, Golden Square 1871-1912, 14 King St, Covent Garden 1913-1921, 60 Brook St, W1 1922-1974.

William Holder: William Holder (1817-87) was the brother of Edwin and Henry Wharrey Holder (see above), and one of seven children of Edward and Jane Holder. He was christened at St Mary, Lambeth in May 1817. He married Christiana Boulter in the Hull registration district in 1840. He can be traced in census records. In 1851 he was living in Kentish Town, described as an artist, age 34, with wife and children including a son, William B. Holder, age 9. By 1861 he was in business at 6 Haymarket, recorded as an artist picture restorer, as were his son William B. and his brother, Henry. In 1871 he was living in Croydon, described as an artist, cleaner and picture restorer, with two sons, William B., age 29, and Charles E., age 18, both described as cleaners and restorers of pictures. In 1881 he was listed as a restorative artist, by now a widower. He died at the age of 70 on 17 April 1887, following which his executors, Charles Edward Holder and George Rigby, placed a notice advising claimants on the estate (The Times 19 April and 30 June 1887).

Charles Edward Holder was born in Kentish Town in about 1853 from census records. He should not be confused with the individual born in the Sculcoates registration district in 1852, who died the following year. He married Emily Field in 1877 in the Croydon registration district and was recorded in the 1881 census in Croydon as a picture restorer, age 28, in 1891 and 1901 as an auctioneer's clerk, and in 1911 as a retired clerk.

Little is known about William Holder's restoration work. For Charles Winn, he cleaned the large picture of Sir Thomas More and family (Nostell Priory) for £45 in 1869 and the picture was again treated by ‘Holder' in 1913; he also cleaned and lined John Greenhill's Charles II for £3 in 1870 (Brockwell, see above, pp.88, 242). For the Vernon family in 1850, he cleaned Godfrey Kneller's James Vernon (National Portrait Gallery), boldly inscribing the lining canvas in white, ‘Cleaned &c by Wm. Holder/ 6 Gt Queen St/ Lincoln's Inn/ London/ Augt 1850' (National Portrait Gallery records, RP 2963).

William Holder & Sons: William Holder died in 1887. Within a few months, his sons, William Boulter Holder and Charles Edward Holder announced the dissolution of their partnership as picture cleaners, trading as W. Holder & Sons at 33 Brewer St, with the business's debts being paid by William Boulter Holder (The Times 5 July 1887). The business was continued by William Boulter Holder, whose name, as W.B. Holder, is given following that of W. Holder & Sons in invoices.

William Boulter Holder (?1841-1911 or later) married Ellen Bowler in 1879 in the Chelsea registration district. In censuses, in 1881 he was recorded at 30 Orchard St, as a picture cleaner, age 39, with wife Ellen, age 27 (IGI), in 1891 in Brighton as a picture restorer, age 48, with wife Ellen, and son William A. Holder, age 8, in 1901 at Rickmansworth and in 1911 as an artist in oil paintings. Before taking on the business as William Holder & Sons, he traded independently as a picture dealer and restorer from 30 Orchard St, 1881-6. It was from this address that he unsuccessfully applied to Sir Frederick Burton, Director of the National Gallery, for employment as a picture restorer in 1884 (National Gallery Archive, NG68/7/8), claiming to have had 25 years experience and offering the highest recommendations from Lord Rosebery, Lord Hylton, Lord Wolseley, Lady Waterpark, Sir George Chetwynd Bt, Sir Henry Bulmer, General Bulmer, J. Rohde and Felix Moschelles.

William Addison Holder (1883-1947), William Boulter's son, was born in 1883 in the Marylebone registration district. He can be found as a student in his father's household in Rickmansworth in the 1901 census. Following his father's death, he continued the business giving his name, as W.A. Holder, following that of W. Holder & Sons in invoices. He died on 30 September 1947, recorded as William Addison Holder, of Messrs W.A. Holder and Son (The Times 30 March 1950).

Restoration work: For the National Gallery, the business polished various pictures between 1925 and 1936 (Penny 2004 p.52 etc), with Vallance carrying out further polishing in the late 1940s (Penny 2004 pp.65, 242, 261). More substantial work included cleaning Titian's Venus and Adonis, 1923 (Penny 2008 p.274), cleaning and retouching Lorenzo Lotto's A woman as Lucretia on acquisition in 1927 (Penny 2004 p.74) and varnish removal, retouching and revarnishing of Sassetta's The Legend of the Wolf of Gubbio, 1935 (Martin Wyld and Joyce Plesters, ‘Some Panels from Sassetta's Sansepolcro Altarpiece', National Gallery Technical Bulletin, vol.1, 1977, p.7).

For the National Portrait Gallery, W. Holder & Sons worked from 1921 until at least 1966 (National Portrait Gallery records, Duplicates of Accounts, vols 8 and 9). In 1931 the business charged £10.10s for 'slight cleaning, repairing, reviving, cutting down and revarnishing' Joseph Wright of Derby's Thomas Day, and in 1936 £11.11s for ‘removing dirt and varnish, ironing down bituminous paint, repairing and revarnishing' Lemuel Abbott's William Cowper. In 1945, the business relined, repaired and varnished Thomas Lawrence's profile George IV for £10.10s.

In 1911 ‘Holder' treated Paulo Veronese's St Jerome and a donor for Dulwich Picture Gallery (Waterfield 1995 p.27). At the Wallace Collection, the business cleaned and repaired various pictures between 1937 and 1939, including Velazquez's Prince Balthasar Carlos in Silver (Ingamells 1985 p.409, see also pp.309, 317). William Vallance and his son subsequently undertook further work at the Wallace Collection (see below).

For the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Corot's View of the Quay of the Schiavoni was restored by W.A. Holder in 1925, and Hyacinthe Rigaud's Monsieur le Bret and his son was cleaned by A. Vallance in 1962 (see Hoff 1973 pp.35, 127).

For the dealer, Joseph Duveen, later Lord Duveen, the business treated various notable paintings, 1919-26, now in the Huntington Library and Art Gallery, including Gainsborough's Karl Friedrich Abel, The Blue Boy, The Cottage Door and Baroness Petre, Thomas Lawrence's ‘Pinkie', Joshua Reynolds's Viscountess Crosbie, Duchess of Devonshire and The Young Fortune Teller, George Romney's Lady Beauchamp-Proctor and Martin Archer Shee's Frances Grenfell and her son (Asleson 2001 pp.94, 104, 112, 122, 142, 242, 328, 336, 356, 366 n.1, 376, 402, 410, 446).

From W. Holder & Sons's printed label from 33 Brewer St on Francis Grant's 1st Earl Russell (National Portrait Gallery), it is apparent that they carried out work on the portrait, probably for the 11th Duke of Bedford or one of his predecessors before 1898. For the Duke of Buccleuch, the business cleaned Rubens's The Watering Place (now National Gallery, see National Gallery Technical Bulletin, vol.6, 1982, p.33). It undertook restoration work on pictures at Wilton House, 1931-61 (Wiltshire and Swindon Archives: The Earl of Pembroke 2057/H1/17). The business put forward proposals for treating 18 pictures at Petworth, according to correspondence in 1928-9 (Brooks 1999 p.171). William Holder also worked for Lord D'Abernon and in 1939 wrote explaining that the paint on J.S. Sargent's Lord D'Abernon was too soft to treat (British Library, Add.MS 48934 f.216).

The Vallances: William Vallance (1883-1951) was born in Hoxton, the son of a picture salesman, Thomas Vallance. He was apprenticed in 1899 to William Boulter Holder. He was recorded in the 1901 census as a picture restorer, born Hoxton, living with his parents in Hammersmith and in 1911 as a picture restorer (worker), living in Upper Tooting with wife Ethel. He had married Ethel Harding in the Wandsworth registration district in 1908 and they had a son, Douglas R. Vallance, born in the same district in 1914. He worked for Holder's all his life, and for many years was apparently a partner in the business with William Addison Holder. He was vice-president and a founder member of the Association of British Picture Restorers. According to his obituarist, ‘he possessed the chief qualification required for his profession: an almost reverend regard for works of art'.

Roy Vallance (b.1914), William Vallance's son, continued the business as W. Holder & Sons, giving his name on the business's invoice paper as D.R. Vallance. For the Royal Collection, he cleaned and restored Van Dyck's Charles I with M. de St Antoine (Millar 1968 p.307). For the National Portrait Gallery in 1966 the business cleaned, repaired and revarnished Ralph Earl's Admiral Kempenfelt for £65, John Everett Millais's Benjamin Disraeli for £30 and John Singer Sargent's Henry James for £30 (National Portrait Gallery records, RP 1767).

At the Wallace Collection, William Vallance cleaned various paintings, including Abraham van Calraet's Two Horsemen at a Tavern, 1947 (Ingamells 1992 p.52) and Canaletto's Venice: the Bacino di S.Marco from S.Giorgio Maggiore and Venice: the Bacino di S.Marco from the Canale della Giudecca, 1948, Boucher's The Rising of the Sun and The Setting of the Sun, 1949 (Ingamells 1989 pp.68, 73) and A.G. Decamp's The Witches in Macbeth, 1951 (Ingamells 1985 pp.225, 229, Ingamells 1986 p.74).

His work was continued by Roy Vallance, who cleaned Horace Vernet's Arabs travelling in the Desert, 1956, Rosa Bonheur's A Waggon and Team of Horses, 1959, Theodore Rousseau's The Forest of Fontainebleau, 1959 (Ingamells 1986 pp.33, 224, 271), Philips Wouwermans's The Horse Fair, 1964, Govert Camphuysen's Dutch Farm with the ruins of the Huis te Kleef, 1965, Horace Vernet's Peace and War, 1969 (Ingamells 1986 p.274), the Rembrandt studio Jean Pellicorne and his son Casper, 1972, Jacob van Ruisdael's Landscape with Waterfall, 1974 (Ingamells 1992 pp.60, 291, 339, 440). At Apsley House, Vallance cleaned Ludolph Bakhuizen's A Man of Rank embarking at Amsterdam and Caspar Netscher's A Lady at her Toilet in 1951, and Thomas Lawrence's Lord Lynedoch in 1959 (Kauffmann 1982 pp.29, 83, 102).

For Capt. Malcolm Wombwell at Newburgh Priory, Vallance cleaned and restored Van Dyck's 5th Earl of Pembroke (Millar 1968 p.308).

Sources: Obituary for William Vallance, Burlington Magazine, vol.94, 1952, p.32. For abbreviations, see Resources and bibliography.

Richard Holdgate 1852-1871, Holdgate Bros 1872-1881, Edward & Alfred Holdgate 1881-1885, Alfred Holdgate 1885-1908, Alfred Holdgate & Sons 1909-1933. At 39 London St, Fitzroy Square, London 1852-1886, street renumbered 1886/7, 47 London St 1887-1907, street renamed 1907/8, 47 Maple St 1908-1933. Printers from 1852, copper plate printers from 1858, also picture restorers from 1872, also restorers of old and modern engravings and photograph mounters from 1881, steel, copper, photogravure, etching & fine art printers from 1894.

Richard Holdgate (c.1811-1869) is first mentioned in 1840, when he helped set up an etching press at Buckingham Palace with Henry Graves for Queen Victoria to use while she was expecting her first child (Journal of the Royal Society of Arts, 1888, p.426). He is recorded in London directories as a printer from 1852. Initially he traded with Alexander McGlashon until this partnership was dissolved in 1858 (London Gazette 26 April 1860). In the 1861 census he was listed as a copper plate printer, employing six men and a boy.

Following his death in 1869, the business was continued as a partnership between his three youngest sons, Edward (1842-83), Alfred (1844-1909) and Richard William Holdgate (b.1849). They traded as Holdgate Bros, steel and copper plate printers at 39 London St, until 1881 when the partnership was dissolved, with Edward and Alfred carrying on the business (London Gazette 14 October 1881). At this point the business also advertised as a restorer of old and modern engravings and photograph mounter until 1893.

All three brothers were born in Islington. It is Alfred Holdgate who is of chief interest here for his work as a bleacher, mounter and restorer of engravings in the late 1880s and early 1890s. He married Emma Short in 1869 in the Pancras registration district. His death in 1909, age 65, is recorded in the Edmonton registration district. In censuses Alfred was listed in 1871 as a copper plate printer living at 120 Stanhope St, in 1881 as a fine art painter, living at 29 Werrington St, with his wife Emma and five young children, in 1891 as a fine art painter, living in Islington with his wife and six children, two of whom, Richard and Charles Frederick were also listed as fine art painters, ages 20 and 16 respectively, and in 1901 as a fine art printer (litho), together with Charles Frederick, who was similarly listed. His sons carried on the family business as Alfred Holdgate & Sons from 1909.

Alfred Holdgate's trade card, dating from about 1890, reads, ‘A. Holdgate, Bleacher Remounter and Restorer of Ancient & Modern Engravings. Artist Etching, Printer. 47 [amended from] 39 London Street, Fitzroy Sq, W' (John Johnson Catalogue: Trade Cards 24 (15).

The business was responsible for printing various artists' prints. It produced the 1874 edition of 100 copies of William Blake's Book of Job for John Linnell (G.E. Bentley, Blake Records, 2nd ed., 2004, p.796). It also printed the mezzotint copy by Richard Josey of Whistler's Arrangement in Grey and Black, No.2: Portrait of Thomas Carlyle. The business also appears to have assisted Whistler in printing his first set of Venice etchings in 1881, if Whistler's reference to 'Holgate' can be taken to mean Holdgate (The Correspondence of James Mcneill Whistler at www.whistler.arts.gla.ac.uk, see Whistler Correspondence: Marcus Bourne Huish to JW, 30 August 1881 [01135]).

William John Holoway 1918-1938, also described as W.J. Holoway & Sons by 1924-1931 or later. In Bath to c.1917, at 97 Shaftesbury Avenue, London 1918-1919, 75-77 Shaftesbury Avenue 1920-1933, 13 Cecil Court, WC2 1934-1938. Print restorer and printseller.

The son of Samuel Holloway, a carver and gilder, William John Holoway was born in 1867 in the Bath registration district, where he married Edith Elizabeth Willis in 1887. In census records, William John Holoway was listed in 1881, spelt ‘Holloway', living with his parents in Walcot, Bath, in 1891 as a picture restorer, age 24, living in Walcot with his wife, Edith, also 24, in 1901 as an employer, a picture restorer and dealer living in Weston with his wife and six children, ages 1 to 12, the oldest a son, named William Percy and in 1911 as an antique print dealer and artist at 15 Broad St, Bath, his son now listed as Percy William, a shop assistant and print dealer, and two younger sons. The family moved to London by 1918 when William John Holoway is recorded trading as a print restorer and printseller in Shaftesbury Avenue.

While the business was recorded as William John Holoway in London trade directories, it is found as W.J. Holoway & Sons in telephone directories from 1924 to 1931. Two of Holoway's sons went into print selling or picture restoring independently. From 1926 to 1934 Percy William Holoway (b.1889) can be found trading as a print restorer and seller at various addresses on or near the Kings Road, Chelsea, and in 1936 and 1937 Francis Holoway (b.1900) was in business as a picture and print restorer at 3 New Oxford St, subsequently trading as a fine art restorer elsewhere.

The business occasionally worked for the National Portrait Gallery, 1923-8, for example, restoring six drawings by George Dance for £3.3s in 1923, and restoring two miniatures for £5.5s in 1928 (National Portrait Gallery records, Duplicates of Accounts, vol.8, p.152, vol.9, pp.13, 117).

Manfred Griffin Holyoake, 20 Cockspur St, Pall Mall, London 1869-1873, 25 Wigmore St 1872-1875, 3 Mill St, Hanover Square 1875-1876, 118 Albany St, Regents Park 1876-1879, 252 Tufnell Park Road 1911. Picture restorer and dealer.

Manfred Griffin Holyoake (1844-1921) was born in Islington, the son of George Jacob Holyoake from Birmingham. His name is sometimes found spelt as Holyoke. Manfred married Kate Calfe at St Pancras Old Church in 1866 and died age 78 in 1921 in the Islington registration district.

The presence of the picture restorer, Henry Merritt (qv), in the Holyoake household, as a long-term boarder from as early as 1847, was presumably am influence in deciding Manfred‘s future career. In census records, in 1851 Manfred was recorded at the age of 7 with his mother, Eleanor, and his three siblings at 1 Woburn Buildings, Tottenham Court Road, in 1861 as a picture restorer, by now 17, at the same address with his father, the secularist George Jacob Holyoake, and with Merritt still a border, in 1871 in Croydon, in 1881 in Bristol (see below), and in 1891 at Leamington. In Croydon in 1871 he was recorded as a conserver of pictures (a very early use of the term ‘conserver'), with his wife Catherine and two young children. At 16 Norfolk St, Leamington, Warwickshire in 1891 he was recorded as a widower, a picture restorer, with son Philip W. (see below), an art student, age 17. In 1911 he was recorded at 252 Tufnell Park Road, by now a widower, age 67, working as a picture restorer on his own account at home.

Manfred Holyoake published an 80 page manual, The Conservation of Pictures, in 1870, describing himself as a Member of the Associated Arts' Institute. He held an account with the artists' suppliers, Roberson, in 1876 from 118 Albany St (Woodcock 1997).

Holyoake worked for the National Portrait Gallery, 1868-77, mainly polishing and varnishing portraits but occasionally undertaking more interventive work such as cleaning, repairing and varnishing a portrait of Old Parr for £3.10s in 1876 or repairing James Lonsdale's Lord Brougham in 1873 and John Stevens's Sir Charles Bell in 1877 (National Portrait Gallery records, Duplicates of Accounts, vol.1, pp.56-89; see also Walker 1985 pp.38, 65). In 1876, he increased his charge for polishing pictures at the Gallery from 7s.6d a day to 10s.6d (Duplicates of Accounts, vol.1, p.79), much less than Edward Bentley (qv) quoted the Gallery for such work.

In 1869 Holyoake restored the wall and ceiling paintings, attributed to James Thornhill and Maria Verelst, on the staircase at Northaw, Hertfordshire (The Examiner 28 August 1869). In November 1873 he produced a report on the condition of about 60 pictures at Bayham Abbey, Sussex (V&A National Art Library, 86.QQ.Box I (viii)).

Holyoake had Bristol connections, having an account with Roberson from Mrs Bolton's, 2 Park St Viaduct, Bristol (Woodcock, 1997), and appearing in the 1881 census as a boarder (and widower) at William Barni's, 17 Queen Square, Bristol. He was engaged by James Bolton, 2 Park St, Bristol, to clean pictures for Bolton's Art Galleries in 1879 although Bolton subsequently advertised as a picture restorer in his own right (Bristol Mercury 17 February 1879, 25 June 1881).

For abbreviations, see Resources and bibliography.

Philip W. Holyoake, 13 Clarendon Avenue, Leamington Spa 1899. Picture restorer.

Philip William Holyoake (b.1873), the son of Manfred Holyoake (see above), was born in 1873 in the Pancras registration district. He married in 1899 in the Warwick registration district.

As P.W. Holyoake, he advertised the restoration of old paintings, ‘Perished Varnish removed, without destroying the Tone or Quality, of even the most delicately executed painting. Cracks and Damages carefully replenished. Highest references' (The Art Journal March 1899). However, by the time of the 1901 census he was listed at Lillington in Warwickshire as an art master.

Robert Hulton, Corner of Pall Mall, facing the Haymarket, London by 1710-1744 or later, also trading from Westminster Hall 1739. Print publisher and seller, print and picture restorer, picture framemaker.

Robert Hulton's activities as a print publisher and seller have been discussed by Timothy Clayton, to whom this account is indebted. Clayton identifies Hulton as 'the first print seller to set up west of Charing Cross', to satisfy the new developments around St James's Square. Robert Hulton (fl.1710-48) was certainly active by 1710, and perhaps earlier (see British Museum collection database); he has been documented as late as 1748 (see below). He lived in Pall Mall, facing the Haymarket, from which premises he took out insurance as a picture frame maker for goods and merchandise in his house on 23 July 1720 (Guildhall Library: Records of Sun Fire Office, vol.12 no.19139). John Hulton, perhaps his son or another relative, advertised from his or very similar premises in 1733 (Daily Journal 24 March 1733, Country Journal 24 March 1733).

Hulton's trompe l'oeil trade card, engraved by David Lockley, provides an insight into his wide-ranging activities (British Museum, repr. Clayton 1997 p.7; John Johnson coll., see Johnson Coll. Booktrade Trade Cards 4). He advertised, ‘The following Particulars Made & Sold Very Cheap by Robert Hulton at ye Corner of Pallmall facing the Haymarkett, St James, London', offering ‘MAPs & Prints Sold And Framed for Parlors Staircases And Closets at Reasonable Rates'. Other services featured in the trade card are referred to below.

As a restorer, Robert Hulton advertised in 1710, 1711 and 1712, offering among other things a print cleaning service, 'Gentleman and Ladies may have their dirty yellow Prints very well cleaned and cheap' (e.g. Evening Post 1 July 1710). He used his trade card to promote his services: ‘Paintings Cleaned and Carefully Lined & Mended', as well as ‘Prints and Indian Picktures Cleaned Very well'. He submitted a bill to Cosmo Gordon, 3rd Duke of Gordon, in June 1740, made out on the reverse of his trade card (National Archives of Scotland, GD44/51/465/1/31) and to Lord Monson on 21 October 1743 for £1.15s for cleaning and mending pictures and providing 'A Peartree Frame with a Gilt San[din]g' (DEFM).

As a picture and print framemaker, Hulton used his trade card to advertise ‘Fine Gold Frames for Paintings', as well as ‘Fine Carved and Gilt Frames, Fine Ebony Frames with Gilt Edges, Fine Peartree Frames with Gilt Edges for Paintings or Prints Made after ye Newest Fashion & in ye Nicest Maner'. His receipt, dated 16 January 1731, in the Blenheim papers (British Library, Add.MS 61678 f.188), lists ‘framing 48 postures in peartree frames & glasses at 2s each', costing £4.16s, or £5 with a box. The artist, Arthur Pond, took black frames from Hulton in exchange for supplying him with prints, in July 1745, April 1747 and May 1748 to a total value of more than £22 (Lippincott 1991 pp.271-2, 287, 297).

Sources: Clayton 1997 pp.5-7, 22, 35, 134, 293 n.3. For abbreviations, see Resources and bibliography.

Noticed a mistake? Have some extra information? Who should be added to this directory? Please contact Jacob Simon at jsimon@npg.org.uk.