British artists' suppliers, 1650-1950 - V

A selective directory, to be revised and expanded regulary, 1st edition June 2006, 2nd edition May 2008 (*entry revised, **new entry).

Contributions are welcome, to Jacob Simon at jsimon@npg.org.uk.

Resources and bibliography Individual artists

*Gerard Vandergucht junr , The Golden Head, George St, Hanover Square 1757-1758, Vandyke's Head, Brook St, Grosvenor Square 1758-1762 or later. Printseller, picture dealer, stationer.

Gerard Vandergucht junr (after 1725-1762 or later) was the son of the engraver, Gerard Vandergucht (1696-1776), who married Mary Liney in 1725 at St Mary, Marylebone. Gerard Vandergucht junr appears to be the individual who married Ruth Holden in 1759 at St Mary Magdalen, Richmond (they had a son, Benjamin, christened in 1769).

The father traded as Gerard Vandergucht senr from Great Brook St in the 1760s (see Ian Maxted, The London Book Trades, 1735-1775: a checklist of members in trade directories and in Musgrave's Obituaries at www.devon.gov.uk/etched?_IXP_=1&_IXR=100158#v). The father's death at his house in Lower Brook St was reported in 1776 (Daily Advertiser 18 March 1776). His will, dated 14 February and proved 16 March 1776, makes it clear that his son Gerard was dead by then.

Gerard Vandergucht junr traded initially in partnership with W. Austin at the Golden Head, George St, Hanover Square, in 1757 and 1758. In announcing his move to Brook St in May 1758, he advertised prints and drawings for sale, as well as watercolours, crayons, chalks and every other article relating to drawing (Public Advertiser 12 May 1758). He also traded in painted portraits of 'great and eminent persons' (Public Advertiser 25 May 1759). Vandergucht used his trade card of 1758 or soon after to advertise that he sold 'the greatest variety of Japaning, Water Colours, Crayons, Black, Red & White Chalk, India Ink, Port Crayons & every Article relating to Drawing' (Heal coll. 100.80; W.S. Lewis Library, Farmington, CT, repr. Iain Pears, The Discovery of Painting: the growth of interest in the arts in England, 1680-1768, 1988, p.74). An invoice to Lord Winterton, dated 26 March 1761, for supplying a Dutch ebony frame with papier maché gilt ornaments and to a subscription payment for landscapes, presumably prints, provides evidence of his trading activities (Heal coll. 96.20).