British picture restorers, 1630-1950 - T

John Tanous Ltd, see British picture framemakers on the National Portrait Gallery website.

Mr Tarn, King's Lynn 1824. Picture cleaner and picture dealer.

Tarn has not been traced but he is included here for his label, ‘No 1789/ Mr. Tarn/ Professor of Picture Cleaning/ (old Pictures Bought or exchanged)/ Lynn Jany. 1824', found on Thomas Hudson's Sir William Browne, and a similar label, but ‘No 1793', on another Hudson portrait of the same sitter (coll. Sir Robert Ffolkes, exh. Thomas Hudson 1701-1779, Iveagh Bequest, Kenwood, 1979, nos 25, 65). ‘Tarn' also appears as a seller of a picture at Christie's in 1822 (Getty provenance index).

Philip Joseph Tassaert (1736-1803), see William Seguier

Frederick Tate, 18 Percy St, Bedford Square, London W by 1844-1920. Carvers and gilders, picture restorers.

For Frederick Thomas Tate (1811-83) and his son Frederick Kent Tate (1847-c.1920?), see British picture framemakers on the National Portrait Gallery website.

Tate Gallery, London

Not included here since institutional histories are outside the scope of this directory, but see Frances Spalding, The Tate: A History, 1998, pp.66, 130-2, 168-70 etc. See also the outline history of the Conservation Department, commencing in the 1950s, on the Tate website at www.tate.org.uk/conservation/about/history.htm . In this directory, Horace Buttery worked for the Tate, 1947-51, while Francis Leedham, 1857, Henry Merritt, 1859-60, and Charles Buttery, 1864-73, worked for the National Gallery on pictures now in the Tate. This is a provisional listing, which it is hoped to extend in the next edition of this directory.

John Taylor 1843-1856, Joseph Robert Taylor 1856-1889. At 20 Cross St, Manchester 1843, 19 Ridgefield 1843, 20 Ashton St 1845, 15 Brazenose St 1847-1889. Picture restorers, carvers and gilders.

John Taylor (c.1813-1856) followed a Mr James in business, describing himself on his trade label as ‘Mr Taylor Successor to Mr James Picture Restorer 15 Brazenose Street' (examples found on stretchers of portraits sold Christie's South Kensington 4 March 2004 lot 303). Taylor's predecessor was probably Henry Gould James (c.1799-1842), recorded as a picture restorer at 19 Ridgefield in 1841 (Pigot & Slater's Manchester and Salford Directory, 1841). He was the author of James's Views of Manchester, published 1821-5. John Taylor moved from 20 Cross St to James's premises at 19 Ridgefield in 1843 (Manchester Guardian 11 February 1843). ‘Mr Taylor' advertised as a picture restorer at 15 Brazenose St in 1853 (Manchester Guardian 5 October 1853).

John Taylor, picture restorer of Brazenose St, died at the age of 43 in 1856 (Manchester Guardian 24 May 1856). He was followed by his son, Joseph Robert Taylor (?1835-1889), who advertised as his successor within a few months (Manchester Guardian 2 August 1856). He is presumably the Joseph Roberts Taylor, son of John and Mary Ann Taylor, who was christened in July 1835 in Manchester Cathedral. In censuses, Joseph Robert Taylor was recorded in 1871 as a picture restorer, age 35, unmarried, living with his mother Mary Ann, and brother John, age 29, at Chorlton-on-Medlock, and in 1881 as a picture restorer, born Manchester, age 44, at Roebuck Lane, Sale, Cheshire with Catherine, his 24-year-old wife. He died at the age of 54 on 28 December 1889 in the Altrincham registration history, described as an expert in pictures and picture restorer (London Gazette 22 August 1890).

Thomas Creswick's The Windmill, 1869 or before (Sudley, Liverpool, see Morris 1996), bears the canvas stamp of ‘J. Taylor' from 15 Brazenose St.

William Tomkins, Tottenham Court Road (corner of Windmill St), London 1762-1763, St Martin's Lane (at Mr Turner's) 1763-1765, Little St Martin's Lane 1766, Margaret St, Cavendish Square 1767-1772, Little Queen Anne St, Portland Chapel 1773-1774, 70 Queen Anne St 1775, 75 Queen Anne St East 1776-1792. Landscape painter and picture restorer.

The landscape painter, William Tomkins ARA (c.1730-92), exhibited country house views at the Royal Academy and elsewhere, 1761-90. He was born in London in 1730, the son of a painter, according to Edward Edwards (Edwards 1808 p.168). He married Susanna Callard at an unknown date. They had three sons christened at St Mary Marylebone, the youngest, Montague, in 1773. ‘Tomkins' appears as a buyer at the Noel Joseph Desenfans sale at Christie's in 1786 (Getty provenance index). William Tomkins died on 1 January 1792 (Edwards 1808 p.168). In his will, made 20 May 1788 and proved 28 March 1792, he bequeathed his 17 books containing his landscape and other sketches to his youngest son, Montagu, and much of the rest of his estate to his wife, Mary. He was father of the engraver, Peltro William Tomkins (see British artists’ suppliers on the National Portrait Gallery website).

William Tomkins ‘practiced much as a picture cleaner', according to Edward Edwards (Edwards 1808 p.168). At Saltram House in Devon he was paid £20 for cleaning pictures in 1778, also producing landscape views of the Saltram estate as early as 1770 (The Saltram Collection, National Trust, 1977, p.74). At Hatfield House, Hertfordshire he restored pictures before 1782, when it was reported that ‘Mr Tomkins' had repaired pictures in the collection (Auerbach 1971 pp.165, 263, quoting Thomas Pennant, Journey from Chester, 1782, p.411); he also exhibited two views of Hatfield at the Royal Academy in 1782 (Auerbach 1971 p.220).

Sources: Deborah Graham-Vernon, ‘William Tomkins', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, 2004. For abbreviations, see Resources and bibliography.

William Tremaine, Chichester by 1735-1742 or later. Painter and picture restorer, probably also glazier.

William Tremain of Hambledon, Hampshire, married Lucy Kennet in 1735 in the Palace Chapel at Chichester and had four or five children christened at St Peter the Great, Chichester, between 1735 and 1742, most of whom died in infancy. He himself died in 1747, according to George Vertue (Vertue vol.5, p.143) and a William Tremain was buried in St Martin's, Chichester on 8 March 1747. According to Vertue, writing in 1747, 'Tremaine', a painter, repaired paintings in Chichester Cathedral, apparently the line of kings which ornament the south transept, while there are references to ‘Tremayne' in early guidebooks. There is a record in the Cathedral accounts 1749 of ‘ye Painter's Bill for painting ye Kings' for £12.12s but the painter is unnamed.

There was a master glazier, William Tremaine, also spelt Tremain or Trimain, to whom apprentices were bound in Chichester in 1735, 1743 and 1748 (Mary Hobbs (ed.), Chichester Cathedral: An Historical Survey, 1994, p.305, n.19).

Sources: Cutten papers, West Sussex Record Office, Cutten A/1/1/4, drawn to my attention by Timothy Hudson. 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