British artists' suppliers, 1650-1950
An online resource, launched in 2006, selectively updated twice yearly. Last updated March 2024. Contributions are welcome, to Jacob Simon at [email protected].
Resources and bibliography
Introduction
An online resource, researched and written by Jacob Simon, 1st edition 2007, 2nd edition 2009, 3rd edition 2012, now selectively updated twice yearly. Contributions are welcome, to Jacob Simon at [email protected]. Additional entries by Gordon Balderston, Everleigh Bradford, Lynn Roberts, Robin H. Rodger and Edward Town.
This resource is devoted to framemakers and carvers and gilders in Britain. It focuses on suppliers who produced frames for significant artists and patrons or who advertised extensively in art periodicals. Many of these framemakers worked in London but others were based in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen, Manchester, Liverpool, Lancaster, Leeds, Birmingham, Norwich, Oxford, Cambridge, Bath, Bristol, Maidstone and Brighton. Other framemakers can be found in the Dictionary of English Furniture Makers 1660-1840 (1986), Jacob Simon, The Art of the Picture Frame (1996), Laura Houliston, 'Frame Making in Edinburgh 1790-1830', Regional Furniture, vol.13 (1999) and John Stabler, Norfolk Furniture Makers 1700-1840, Regional Furniture Society (2006).
Format of individual entries (*revised 2012, **new entry 2012)
Names, addresses, dates. Nature of business (note 1)
Business and biographical information. Cross-references to other makers are indicated by adding ‘(qv)’ after the relevant name.
Product details, connections with individual artists and patrons, including documented and marked frames For abbreviations see Resources and bibliography.
Notes
1. Addresses are taken from annual publications such as trade directories or periodicals except where monthly or daily publications or precisely dated documents are available. Many directories, such as Post Office London directories, were prepared towards the end of the year preceding publication so that a supplier may have begun and ended business a year earlier than indicated here. Overlaps and gaps in the date sequence for addresses reflect the availability of evidence. ‘New Style’ is used for dates before 1752.
2. To find a particular collection, artist, frame type or material, use a search engine. Enter your search term, followed by site:https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/research. You can further narrow the results by adding to the search: “British picture framemakers".
Acknowledgements
This resource has been compiled with assistance from Lynn Roberts. Particular gratitude goes to Helen Smailes for access to her files and other information on Scottish makers and to Richard Stephens for information on the period 1660-1735 and to his website, The art world in Britain 1660 to 1735. Thanks to Gerry Alabone for details of Tate frames and on the Binning family, Edgar Harden for details of makers’ labels, Dana Josephson and Annette Peach for guidance on Oxford sources and collections, Charles Noble for information on Chatsworth and other collections, Edward Town for information on the early 17th century, and James Yorke for providing access to the V&A Furniture Dept Archive. At the National Portrait Gallery, thanks to many colleagues, especially Richard Hallas and Tim Moreton, also Seraphina Coffmann and Heather Tilley, with voluntary help coming from two curatorial interns, Chloe Evans and Suzanna Walker. Grateful acknowledgements are made to the descendants of various framemakers and to other researchers named in individual entries for information received.
Found a mistake? Have some extra information? Please contact Jacob Simon at [email protected].