Resources and bibliography

The following records have been used in compiling the four online resources: British artists' suppliers, 1650–1950, British picture framemakers, 1600–1950, British picture restorers, 1600–1950 and British bronze sculpture founders and plaster figure makers, 1800–1980. Last updated March 2024.

Business records
Official records
Periodicals and newspapers
Trade cards and catalogues
Websites and digital resources
Bibliography

Business records

Business records

Records for individual businesses, where known, are identified within the entry for the particular business.

Roberson account holders

Roberson Archive, Hamilton Kerr Institute, Cambridge. The publication by Sally Woodcock (cited as Woodcock 1997) of an index of account holders, 1820–1939, with Charles Roberson, subsequently Roberson & Miller, Charles Roberson & Co, and C. Roberson & Co Ltd, makes this valuable resource available. See Index of Account Holders in the Roberson Archive.

Salerooms

References to labelled frames, canvases and panels in salerooms occasionally derive from information in published sale catalogues but otherwise through personal observation. References to sellers and purchasers at sales in the 18th and 19th century come from various sources, including the Getty provenance index, an online resource maintained by the J. Paul Getty Trust, including indexed transcriptions from numerous British auction catalogues, mostly from the period 1750–1840.

Sun insurance records

Sun Insurance Office policy registers,1710–1928, London Metropolitan Archives, formerly Guildhall Library, London (MS 11936). Card indexes by trade for London are available at certain locations covering parts of the period. A microfiche index to the registers is available for 1775–87, and an online record for 1782–1842 at National Archives Advanced Search (to find a record, select ‘Search other archives’ and then London Metropolitan Archives and include the word ‘insured’ in the search term). See also Fire Insurance Records at City of London.

Official records

Apprenticeships 

The Inland Revenue Registers of Duties Paid for Apprentices' Indentures, 1710-1811, are available online as a co-operation between Ancestry and the National Archives. This largely supercedes Percival Boyd’s index, The Apprentices of Great Britain, 1710-74, abstracted from same records in the National Archives, series IR 1 (index available at Society of Genealogists, Guildhall Library and elsewhere). Another series, London Apprenticeship Abstracts, 1442-1850, with over 300,000 names from City Company records, is available through a cooperation with the Society of Genealogists at Find My Past. Yet another resource, Records of London's Livery Companies Online, a project to create a searchable and freely accessible database of membership information for City of London's Livery Companies, from earliest surviving records until c.1900, has published records relating to the Bowyers' Company, Clothworkers', Drapers', Founders’, Girdlers', Goldsmiths', Mercers', Musicians', Salters', Stationers' and Tallow Chandlers'.

The Inland Revenue registers of tax payments on apprentice’s indenture are now available online as Registers of Duties Paid for Apprentices' Indentures, 1710–1811, a cooperation between Ancestry and the National Archives. This largely supercedes Percival Boyd’s index, The Apprentices of Great Britain, 1710–74, abstracted from same records in the National Archives, series IR 1 (index available at Society of Genealogists, Guildhall Library and elsewhere). Another series, ‘London Apprenticeship Abstracts, 14421850’, with over 300,000 names from City Company records, is available through a cooperation with the Society of Genealogists at Find My Past. Yet another resource, Records of London's Livery Companies Online, a project to create a searchable and freely accessible database of membership information for City of London's Livery Companies, from earliest surviving records until c.1900, has records relating to the Companies of Bowyers, Clothworkers, Drapers, Founders, Girdlers, Goldsmiths, Mercers, Musicians, Salters, Stationers and Tallow Chandlers.

Births, marriages, deaths (BMD) 

Records of births, marriages and deaths have been studied through three helpful websites. FreeBMD
is an ongoing project to transcribe the Civil Registration index of births, marriages and deaths for England
and Wales, and to provide free Internet access to the transcribed records; it contains partial index information for the period 1837-1997 at freebmd.org.uk. References to ‘registration district’ or to ‘district’ refer to the civil registration districts. Non-conformist BMD provides information on a fee basis from the registers of various non-conformist churches, 1534-1865, at bmdregisters.co.uk. London Parish Records provides information on a fee basis, covering certain London Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1538-1812 at ancestry.co.uk, provided with the London Metropolitan Archives, and also Westminster Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1558-1812 records provided with the City of Westminster Archives Centre. For Scotland, see Scotlands People, below.

Censuses 

Censuses were taken every ten years, in 1841 on 6 June, from 1851 to 1911 between 30 March and 7 April and in 1921 on 19 June. These are available on a fee basis online for England and Wales on various genealogical websites. In the 1841 census, ages were rounded down to the nearest five years. Another partially completed database, FreeCEN, aims to provide a free-to-view online searchable database of UK census returns, with the useful facility to search by occupation. The 1881 census can be searched by occupation on the Ancestry website. The 1921 census can be searched by occupation at findmypast.co.uk . The 1931 census was destroyed and no census was taken in 1941. A simpler version of the census, the 1939 England and Wales Register, was taken on 29 September 1939 and is available on the Ancestry website . For Scotland, see ‘Scotlands People’ below.

Land tax assessments 

Land Tax Records, 1692-1932, for various areas in London, held by the London Metropolitan Archives, can be searched by name on the Ancestry website . The records provide a wealth of information on people’s addresses but are not altogether straightforward. Many individuals do not appear at all in the records and may have never been listed, especially when tenants in a divided property, while others were not accurately recorded in the original assessment or, alternatively, in the digital transcription.

National Probate Calendar 

This index, England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations)’, 1858-1995 on the Ancestry website, contains summaries of the vast majority of probate cases in England and Wales. Another index on this website, Scotland, National Probate Index (Calendar of Confirmations and Inventories), 1876-1936
provides comparable information. In quoting from these summaries, the value of effects has been rounded down to the nearest whole pound.

PCC wills 

Unless otherwise stated, references to wills are to the series of Prerogative Court of Canterbury Wills, 1384-1858, held by the National Archives. These cover wills proved (i.e., formally approved) by this court, covering relatively wealthy individuals living mainly in the south of England and most of Wales (what was originally the ecclesiastical province of Canterbury), available on a fee basis at The National Archives, and free at the National Archives. Wills dating to after 1858 have not been studied. For Scotland, see ‘Scotlands People’, below.

Poll books 

UK Poll Books and Electoral Registers, 1538-1893, belonging to London Metropolitan Archives and Guildhall Library, digitised in partnership with Ancestry.

Proceedings of the Old Bailey 

A searchable online edition of the largest body of texts detailing the lives of non-elite people ever published, containing accounts of over 100,000 criminal trials held at London's central criminal court, 1674-1913, freely accessible at the Old Bailey online.

Rate books 

With some exceptions, rate books have not been studied; they have the potential to provide further information for early individuals. Westminster Rate Books, 1634-1900, are available online at Fine My Past. They provide invaluable information but the mechanism does not allow one to go from page to page to check the location of the property and the date of the rate book. Entries are subject to any misrecording in the original rate book or in the digital transcription. For example, in the digital transcription Charles Buttery is twice given at 46 Greek St incorrectly as 1830 but the particular rate books actually date to 1850 and 1851.

Returns of alien passengers 

Returns listing alien passengers on ships arriving at English ports, as required by the Aliens Act, cover much of the period 1826-69 (National Archives, HO 3). They can be searched digitally on the Ancestry website.

Scotlands People

Birth, marriage, death and census records for Scotland are available on a fee basis at the official source for genealogical data for Scotland on the Scotlands People website. The site also provides access to Scottish wills and testaments, 1513-1925.

Periodicals and newspapers

17th- and 18th-century Burney newspapers and 19th-century British Library newspapers 

Full-text searchable digital archive of numerous newspapers in England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland. Available free in British Library Reading Rooms and some reference libraries, with online access on subscription. This website is the source for most newspaper quotations except for those listed below.

19th-century UK periodicals 

Full-text searchable digital archive of nearly 600 periodicals covering all aspects of British life in the 19th century. Available on subscription from GALE, and free at certain reference libraries.

British Newspaper Archive 

A partnership between the British Library and Find My Past to digitise up to 40 million newspaper pages from the British Library's collection. Available on subscription at British Newspaper Archive.

The Art-Union 

Periodical published monthly 1839–48. Initially R. Ackermann was the only colourman to advertise but he was soon followed by Reeves, Roberson and Winsor & Newton in 1840 and thereafter by a changing selection of companies, including framemakers.

The Artist 

Periodical published monthly from 1927, examined selectively.

The Artists’ Directory 

Periodical apparently published annually 1870–76. 1870 is available in the British Museum Dept of Prints & Drawings, 1874 at the British Library (PP.2495.bcn) and the Society of Genealogists,1875 with Jacob Simon, 1876 at Guildhall Library.

The Guardian and The Observer 

Available on subscription at The Guardian - Historical Newspapers, covering the The Guardian (since 1821) and The Observer (since 1791), full text searchable.

The London Gazette and The Edinburgh Gazette 

A government journal, published in London since 1665, and in Edinburgh since 1699, and more consistently since 1793. This is a useful source for changes in business partnerships and individual bankruptcies. There are certain gaps in the online coverage, e.g. for 1796, where some details have been extracted from Maxted.

The Scotsman 

Available on subscription from British Newspaper Archive 1817–1950, full text searchable.

The Times 

Available on subscription from The Times Digital Archive 1785–1985, and free at many reference libraries. There are inadequacies in the full-text search mechanism.

The Year’s Art 

Periodical published annually 1880–1947, examined up until 1920, compiled late in the year preceding publication. Initially Newman was the only colourman to advertise but he was followed by Lechertier Barbe in 1883, and thereafter by a changing selection of companies.

Telephone books 

British Phone Books, 1880–1984, a searchable online resource useful for establishing business addresses, available on a fee basis at British Phone Books, 1880-1984. It contains phone books published between 1880, the year after the public telephone service was introduced, and 1984, from the historic phone book collection held by BT Archives, providing near full county coverage for England as well as containing substantial records for Scotland, Ireland, and Wales.

Trade directories 

Trade directories are available at the Guildhall Library, London, and elsewhere on microfilm. Increasingly, they are being made available online. Kent's London Directory, 1794, can be accessed in transcription at London Ancestor. Numerous pre-1920 English and Welsh directories are reproduced in the original at the site maintained by the University of Leicester, with full-text search mechanism. Many Scottish directories, 1773–1911, are available on the National Library of Scotland site Scottish Post Office Directories. Directories were often published around the start of the year, thus recording businesses at the locations they occupied late in the previous year.

Whitley papers 

British Museum, Department of Prints & Drawings, volumes of newspaper cuttings and typewritten slips, put together by William Thomas Whitley (1858–1942), presented to the Museum in 1943. Whitley was author of Artists and their Friends in England 1700–1799, 1928, and other books.

Trade cards and catalogues

Banks collection

British Museum, Dept of Prints & Drawings, collection of trade cards etc, put together by Sarah Sophia Banks (1744–1818), only sister of Sir Joseph Banks, presented to the Museum in 1818. Many of these cards were marked with the year in manuscript, presumably indicating when the card was acquired. Some cards from other sources have been filed in this sequence at the British Museum. In process of being placed on the British Museum website.

Heal collection 

British Museum, Dept of Prints & Drawings, collection of trade cards, put together by Sir Ambrose Heal (1872–1959), by whom they were bequeathed to the Museum. They are in the process of being placed online. Interesting results for all trade cards at the British Museum can be obtained by selecting ‘trade-card’ as an ‘Object type’ and then entering a search term such as ‘gilder’.

Johnson collection 

Bodleian Library, Oxford, collection of printed ephemera, put together by John Johnson (1882–1956), entered Library in 1968.

Simon collection 

Trade cards and trade catalogues in the collection of the compiler, Jacob Simon, are intended as an eventual gift to a public collection.

Trade catalogues 

The best listings of the catalogues of the major firms of Reeves, Roberson, Rowney and Winsor & Newton can be found in Carlyle 2001, Katlan 1987 and Katlan 1992.

Websites and digital resources

A2A 

Access to Archives, as it was formerly called, is now subsumed in to National Archives Advanced Search. It contains more than 10 million records relating to items held in 400 record offices and other repositories in England and Wales. Many of the references to items held in archives are taken from this database; few have been inspected in the original. For Scotland, see below.

Biography database 

Biography CD-ROM database 1680–1830, covering UK and USA for book subscription lists, national, town and trade directories through to 1830 and society membership lists.

The Camden Town Group in Context 

This Tate project launched in 2012 brings together artist biographies, catalogue entries on the Tate collection with information on technique and condition, thematic essays, transcripts of reviews and key publications, and other material drawn from Tate’s Archive.

ECCO (Eighteenth Century Collections Online)

135,000 18th-century English-language printed works, fully searchable including full-text and illustrations, available on subscription from GALE, and free at the British Library and elsewhere.

Genuki UK and Ireland genealogy 

The aim of GENUKI is to serve as a comprehensive ‘virtual reference library’ of genealogical information of particular relevance to the UK & Ireland; see www.genuki.org.uk/.

Google Book Search

Google advanced book search covers many out of print and obscure publications. Perhaps the most useful results can be obtained when searches are limited to ‘full view’ of books published within a specific timespan.

IGI 

Covering a wide selection of international sources, in the form of the International Genealogical Index, including for Britain in formation from some parish registers, and a transcript of the 1881 census, maintained by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Many birth and marriage details prior to Civil Registration in 1837 have been derived from this database.

Literature online 

Over a third of a million full-text works of poetry, prose and drama in English, free at the British Library and elsewhere.

London Book Trades 1775–1800 

Maintained by Ian Maxted, formerly at Devon Library and Information Services, making available and extending his 1977 publication of the same title (see Maxted 1977). This and related material is now available at Book History.

National Records of Scotland 

Listing official and personal papers, at National Records of Scotland.

Scottish Book Trade Index 

Index covering the Scottish book trade up until c. 1850, maintained by the National Library of Scotland.