British artists' suppliers, 1650-1950 - T

*John Taylor by 1832-1849, John Taylor & Son 1850-1898 or later, John Taylor & Son (Edinburgh) Ltd by 1902-1940. At West Thistle St (also called south-west Thistle Lane), Edinburgh by 1832-1835, 55 George St 1835-1850, 54 George St (under the Assembly Rooms) 1841-1850, 109 Princes St 1851-1911 or later, 110 Princes St by 1876-1940. Picture framemakers, printsellers, auctioneers, later furniture makers and upholsterers.

In advertising in 1841 that he taken out a license as an auctioneer, John Taylor referred to his experience in trade of the previous 17 years; he announced that he would shortly be opening a saleroom under the Assembly Hall at 54 George St, opposite his present premises at 55 George St (The Scotsman 20 November 1841). The business lasted in one form or another into the 20th century and was finally wound up in 1945 (Edinburgh Gazette 30 October 1945).

John Taylor offered framed prints, picture frames and cabinet furniture, and advertised 'Prepared canvass, panels, drawing-boards, easels, and palettes, &c., for Artists' (The Scotsman 7 February 1838). He also advertised 'superior prepared Mahogany Panels of the extraordinary size, 90 x 48 inches, in one board', as well as London prepared portrait, landscape and miniature frames (The Art-Union, October 1839, p.158). He had an account with Roberson 1838-50 (Woodcock 1997).

John Taylor & Son advertised their new and extensive premises at 109 Princes St in 1851 (The Scotsman 20 August 1851). An undated painting by Samuel Edmonston has the impressed stretcher stamp, 'JOHN TAYLOR & SON/ MANUFACTURERS/ EDINBURGH'. The business continued for many years but ceased to supply artists' materials, advertising at one stage as upholster to Her Majesty, and supplying furniture (a pair of chairs are repr. Regional Furniture, vol.7, 1993, p.82).

*Joseph Robert Taylor , 15 Brazennose St, Manchester by 1862-1886 or later. Picture restorer, carver and gilder.

Joseph Robert Taylor (c.1837-1889) was recorded in the 1881 census as a picture restorer, carver and gilder, age 44, at Roebuck Lane, Sale, Cheshire with Catherine, his 24-year-old wife (IGI). He died on 28 December 1889, 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 Taylor's canvas stamp.

*Taylor & Norie, head Carruber's Close and West Register St, Edinburgh 1800-1804, High St and Register St 1805-1810, 141 High St 1811-1814, Robert Norrie & Son, 141 High St by 1816-1845, West Register St 1820, 24 West Register St 1845-1846, 30 West Register St 1848-1849. Painters and colour shops, also floorcloth manufacturers, described as colourmen from 1811.

The Norie Family ran the most successful Scottish painting business in the 18th century, completing many notable interior schemes. Robert Norie or Norrie was the third of this name and diversified into new products such as painted floor cloths and artists' colours. His partner in the business of Norie & Taylor, painters, which featured in Edinburgh directories from 1793 to 1801, has not been identified. In 1804 Robert Norie was listed as painter at West Register Street and Mrs Taylor as colour shop, head of Carruber's Close; Norie was again listed as painter at 2 West Register St 1812-15 and West Register St continued to feature as the address for the painting activities of the business. The partnership between Elizabeth Taylor and Robert Norie as Taylor & Norie, painters and floor cloth manufacturers, was dissolved in March 1814 (London Gazette 19 November 1814). By the time the business advertised in 1820, it appears as Robert Norrie & Son, with premises as a floor cloth warehouse at West Register St and as oil and colour shop at 141 High St (Caledonian Mercury 27 May 1820). The business continued until 1849, and was followed at 30 West Register St by Lawrie & Glover, painters, from 1850.

Norie's role in supplying artists remains to be documented. Raeburn is said to have dealt with this business (Whitley 1928, vol.1, pp.334-5). David Wilkie in his youth is reported to have bought their paints and brushes, as also Nasmyth (John Burnett, 'Recollections of My Contemporaries: The Early Days of Wilkie', Art Journal August 1860 p.237).

Sources: James Holloway, The Norie Family, National Galleries of Scotland, 1994.

James Tillyer, see John Sherborn

John Tiranti & Co, 13 Maple St, Tottenham Court Road, London W1 1920s, 1930s,
Tiranti's, Alec Tiranti Ltd 1950s-1970s, 72 Charlotte St, W1. Sculpture materials and booksellers. A candidate for the next edition of this Directory. Contact Jacob Simon at jsimon@npg.org.uk.

* The 'Titian' Medium Manufacturing Co, 37 Surrey St, Sheffield 1901. Supplier of artists' medium.

This business advertised 12 varieties of medium, describing their products as highly spoken of by the late Lord Leighton, the late Sir John Gilbert and others (The Year's Art 1901). 'Titian' medium was used by J. MacWhirter for A Glacial Stream (The Magazine of Art, 1901, p.572), and by John Mastin RBA and Byam Shaw RI (Madderton's Notes for Artists, nos 24, 30, December 1902, June 1904). The business advertised from 37 Surrey St but this was perhaps an accommodation address since it has not been found in the Sheffield directory. It advertised as agents J.B. Smith (qv) in London, R. Jackson & Sons (qv) in Liverpool and John Heywood (qv) in Manchester (The Magazine of Art, May 1902).

P.W. Tomkins, 49 New Bond St, London 1793-1805, 53 New Bond St 1807-1826, 41 Howland St 1830-1831, 25 Osnaburgh St from 1832. Engraver, printseller and draughtsman.

Peltro William Tomkins (1759-1840) traded with his brother, J.F. Tomkins, as P.W. Tomkins & Co at his printshop at 49 New Bond St from 1793, publishing many fine books illustrated with stipple engravings. He produced an ox-gall ink for watercolours, described on the wrapper as 'REFINED COLOURLESS OX-GALL/ hitherto a / Desideratum for Painting/ IN/ WATER-COLOURS// Rewarded by the Society// for the/ Encouragement of ARTS/ May 25. 1813' (Banks coll. 89.44). Various artists provided letters of approval for this ink (Transactions of the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, vol.31).

Sources: Maxted 1977; Timothy Clayton and Anita McConnell, 'Tomkins, Peltro William (1759-1840)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, vol.54, 2004, pp.924-5.

*Arthur Tooker (active 1664-1687), Old Bailey, London until or before 1664, The Picktuer Shop, The Globe, over against Salisbury House, Strand 1664, 1675, The Royal Hand and Globe, Strand, corner of St Martin's Lane 1680-1682, over against Northumberland House, corner of St Martin's Lane 1687. Stationer, print publisher and bookseller.

Arthur Tooker published Alexander Browne's Ars Pictoria, 1669, 2nd edition 1675, and sold artists' materials supplied by Browne (qv), according to an advertisement in the 1675 edition (Talley 1981 pp.185-188). His trade card by Richard Gaywood of 1664 depicts a large celestial globe, and records his move from the Old Bailey to the Strand (British Museum).

Frank Trotman, see Brodie and Middleton and John Sherborn

*James Lawrance Turnbull & John Turnbull, 105 Bunhill Row, London 1822-1830, Holywell Mount, Curtain Road, Shoreditch EC 1830-1862, Frederick & Samuel Turnbull, Holywell Mount 1863-1875, not listed 1876, 151 Old St 1877-1879, Frederick & Samuel Turnbull & Co, Beaumont Mill, Leyton 1880-1891. Cardboard and board makers.

Despite later claims that the business had been founded in 1780 (see below), it has not been traced before 1815, when trading as Lucas & Turnbull; it was listed from 1816 as Turnbull & Lucas, stationers and booksellers, firstly in Chiswell St and then in Bunhill Row, becoming J.L. and J. Turnbull in 1822. The Turnbulls added 'hot-press' work to their trade description in 1828, and relocated to Holywell Mount in 1830, describing themselves as 'Drawing-board & Card-makers & Hot-Presses' from 1834. The business became the preferred supplier of Bristol, London and Crayon boards to most leading firms of artists' colourmen.

James Lawrance Turnbull (1788-1848) ­ most records use the spelling 'Lawrance' ­ married Hester Thorn in 1815; they had nine children between 1818 and 1834, of whom Frederick, who suceeded to the business, was born in 1828 (IGI, BMD). John Turnbull (d.1862), presumably James Lawrance's brother or cousin, married Christiana Mills in 1814 and had nine children between 1816 and 1836, all girls except Samuel, born the same year and christened at the same church as Frederick Turnbull (IGI, BMD).

We can trace the next generation in the 1881 census (IGI). Frederick Turnbull was recorded at Victoria Road, Romford as paper agent, age 53, born St Luke's, Middlesex, wife Eliza, three children aged 23, 21 and 20, with a son named James Laurence Turnbull after his grandfather. Samuel Turnbull was recorded at Thornwood Comn Lodge, North Weald Bassett, Essex as stationer, age 52, born Shoreditch, Middlesex, wife Ann, four children aged 13 or under. Frederick and Samuel Turnbull filed a list of their debts and liabilities under bankruptcy proceedings in 1869 (London Gazette 16 March 1869).

The business had an account with Roberson, 1829-54 (Woodcock 1997). In 1853 James L. & J. Turnbull were listed as 'Makers of Playing Cards. Pasteboard. Paper Glossers and Pressers and Drawing Board Makers (including London Board)' (Bower 1999 pp.65, 77 n.23). From 1863 the business was listed as Frederick and Samuel Turnbull. There is a receipt of F. & S. Turnbull, 4 May 1874, in the Johnson coll. 1(46). In 1882 the business was listed as 'Turnbull, F. & S. & Co. (J.L. Turnbull & J. Turnbull, of Holywell Mount), established 1780, paper & fine art cardboard manufacturers, inventors & patentees. The celebrated Bristol papers, London, Bristol, Crayon, Coronet & other drawing boards. Mounting boards, cards, &c. Beaumont mill, Leyton E'. Subsequently the business was listed as contractors to H.M.S.O., British Museum, South Kensington Museum, Bibliothèque Royale de Belgique &c. Payments by the British Museum to Messrs Turnbull for mountboard are recorded during the 1850s and 1860s (Joanna M. Kosek, Conservation Mounting for Prints and Drawings, Archetype Publications 2004, p.8).

Some works by William Blake were mounted on Turnbull's Crayon Board at an uncertain date (Townsend 2003 p.168). Their boards can be recognised from their blind stamp (see Krill 1987 fig.123 for a stamped London Board, c.1834). Examples are Samuel Palmer's watercolour, Ivy Cottage, Shoreham, 1828, on crayon board (Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, see Raymond Lister, Catalogue raisonné of the works of Samuel Palmer, 1988, p.66) and, on superfine London board, Henry Bright's drawing, Landscape (Norwich Castle Museum, see Bright p.10) and William Derby's miniature, Col. Abercromby, 1830s? (Bonhams 22 November 2006 lot 207).

Turnbull boards featured in the catalogues of most leading London colourmen from the 1830s to the early 1890s, for example: Brodie and Middleton, 1873 (Illustrated List of Colors & Materials for Oil and Water Color Painting, &c., 80pp, in James Callingham, Sign Writing and Glass Embossing, 1874, 2nd ed); Dimes and Elam, 1843 (The Art-Union September 1843 p.252); Lechertier Barbe & Co, 1873 or later (List of Colours and Materials for Painting on Porcelain, and for Water-Colour Drawing, 55pp, in A. Lacroix, Practical Instructions for Painting on China); Reeves & Sons, 1830s (Every Description of Material for Drawing and Painting, broadsheet) and 1881 (Price List for the Trade Only, 200pp; Charles Roberson & Co, c.1871 (Catalogue of Materials for Drawing, Painting, &c, 32pp, in P.G. Hamerton, The Etcher's Handbook, 1871); Rowney, Dillon & Rowney, c.1845 (List of Materials for Water Colour Painting, 10pp, in Henry O'Neill, A Guide to Pictorial Art. How to use the Black Lead Pencil, Chalks, and Water Colours); George Rowney & Co, c.1846, featuring London Boards manufactured of Whatman's picked drawing paper (Water Colour painting has of late years ..., 44pp, in R.P. Noble, A Guide to Water Colour Painting, 1st ed., 1850); George Rowney & Co, 1893 (Retail Catalogue, 210pp); and Winsor & Newton, c.1857-61 (Catalogue and Price List, 100pp). Turnbull boards were also stocked outside London, for example by Freeman (qv), Norwich, about 1840, and in the United States by Carpenter, Woodward & Morton, Boston (Illustrated Trade Price List of Artists' Materials, 1890), F.W. Devoe & Co, New York (Priced catalogue of artists' materials, 1878, 249pp) and Michael Knoedler & Co, New York (trade catalogue, c.1870, see Katlan 1992 p.351).

George Turner , 24 Charing Cross, London. Drawing master.

Turner's trade card of about 1780 advertised ' Turner / EVENING DRAWING/ ACADEMY/ for Ladies, on/ Mondays, & Fridays,/ for Gentlemen, on/ Tuesdays, & Thursdays,/ at the Ancient & Modern/ PRINT & PICTURE SHOP / N 24/ Charing-Cross./ NB, much IMPROVED COLOURS/ in CAKES &c,/ with every ARTICLE/ for/ drawing.' (British Museum, repr. Clarke 1981 p.94).

*James Turner, 24 Millbank St, Westminster, London 1797-1806. Colourman.

Probably the James Turner who marketed an 'ultramarine' at 3 guineas an ounce which included no lapis lazuli at all (Gage 2001 p.8). Another member of the family, Daniel Turner, exhibited views of London at the Royal Academy, 1796-1800, using the same address at 24 Millbank St.

Twisden Wilkins, see Wilkins