British picture framemakers, 1610-1950

A revised and substantially expanded 3rd edition of this online resource has just gone online on the National Portrait Gallery website. This dictionary resource has doubled in size since first launched in 2007. Thirty-five additional makers have now been added and the starting point for coverage taken back to about 1610. Although most entries have been researched and written by Jacob Simon, this new edition also features articles by Lynn Roberts and Edward Town. Further contributions would be welcome.

Highlights in the new edition include:

• identification of the role of Richard Norris, as the first known member of the Norris dynasty, in framing and other work in the cabinet of Prince Charles at St James’s Palace in the early 1620s (see case study below)

• biographies for Herman Scholier and Henry Waller, both active in the early 17th century, researched by Edward Town

• a lengthy entry for Gillow of Lancaster, provided by Lynn Roberts

• biographies for George Coffee and William Saltmarsh, who worked for Sir John Soane

• highly revealing information from the account book of George Jackson, who supplied composition ornament to many leading Regency framemakers (see case study below)

• a new entry on Robert Archer of Oxford and an expanded text for his apprentice, James Wyatt, revealing their importance in working for the Bodleian Library and the University Galleries in Oxford in the 19th century

• expanded entries for Edinburgh makers, thanks to information from Helen Smailes, and new entries for Aberdeen and Glasgow framemakers

• entries for Charles Goodwin of Maidstone, who carved frames for Arthur Hughes and some of the Pre-Raphaelites, and for John Henry Steer, London-based but framemaker to two artists with Cornish associations, Lamorna Birch and Laura Knight.

• information from the National Probate Calendar, providing the value of estates for makers dying in the years, 1858-1966, and information from Board of Trade records relating to the setting up and liquidation of businesses in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

It's worth pointing out that seven items were deferred by the committe in the year, worth a total of £74.6 million.  Three, with a total value of £44.8 were exported - or 43% of cases and 60% in value.

1. A painting by Jean-Antoine Watteau, La Surprise (£17.5 million)
2. A painting by Francesco Guardi, Venice: A View of the Rialto Bridge from the Fondamenta del Carbon (£26,697,250)
3. A North Italian empire athénienne by Luigi Manfredini (£632,940)

But the press releases for these reports never draw attention to the complete picture.  

And it's a moot point whether the results were better than in the previous year when 7 objects worth a total of £65.8 million were exported (50% of cases but 92% by value).

Bromley has written to Mayor Rahman throwing the gauntlet down over his bid to auction off the sculpture—while Bethnal Green & Bow MP Rushanara Ali has raised the controversy in the Commons in a bid to block the sell-off.

The challenge comes after Museum of London bosses followed a paper trail back to the 1960s when Moore created the sculpture at cost price for the-then London County Council and waived consultation and transport fees to have it put up as a gift to the East End on Stepney’s Stifford Estate.

Old Flo was not transferred to Tower Hamlets when the LCC was abolished in 1965, but instead remained the property of the new GLC until its own abolition in 1986 when all assets passed to the London Residuary Body. The sculpture was then transferred to Bromley, the museum found.

“This is very good news indeed,” said museum director Sharon Ament. “We welcome Bromley’s challenge to Tower Hamlets.

“Bromley has committed to Moore’s statue being on public display. We hope that ‘Old Flo’ will come home to the East End.”

The museum has offered to cover costs of conservation, security, insurance and transporting it back from the Yorkshire Sculpture Park where it has been stored for 15 years, to be displayed at its Docklands site at Canary Wharf.

But Tower Hamlets refutes that Bromley has any right to the asset. The 1962 minutes of the LCC authorised the purchase of the statue “to be sited in Stifford Estate” where it remained until the estate was demolished. The estate transferred to Tower Hamlets, the council points out.

MP Rushanara Ali raised the issue in the Commons yesterday (Weds) when she asked the government to stop the “fire sale”—describing it as “a betrayal of the East End’s working class heritage.”

Mayor Rahman wants Old Flo under the auctioneer’s hammer at Christie’s in February.

"The Connoisseur" [top]  by Henry Herbert  La Thangue is actually of Mr Abraham Mitchell, aged 53 at the time, a Bradford textile tycoon and a Methodist of "reserved and retiring nature". He and his brother Joseph built neighbouring mansions (called "The Parks"), his with a picture gallery, which is the setting for this work. He was one of La Thangue's principal patrons. In the background are his wife and their two sons Tom (standing) and Herbert, and one of his daughters either Edith or Annie. Mitchell had been a local councillor, alderman, JP and refused the mayoralty of the town (see "A Painters Harvest". Oldham Art Gallery catalogue 4 November -12 December 1978 Page 22 & 23).

A very unusual genre for him and a very modern painting for you!!

Visitors to the Dallas Museum of Art won’t be seeing Leonardo da Vinci’s Salvator Mundi after all. Its owners have rejected the museum’s bid to buy the painting after weeks of negotiations, officials revealed Tuesday.

The painting had been at the DMA during the talks. The DMA’s final offer was not disclosed, though the cost of the artwork had previously been reported as $200 million.

The rejection follows a recent flurry of upbeat news — free admission and free memberships in 2013, and $2.3 million in new grants and gifts.

The DMA announced that it was trying to acquire the Da Vinci during the summer and had launched a fundraising campaign toward the purchase.

“While the museum’s leadership was hopeful that the painting would be acquired for the benefit and enjoyment of the public, they are incredibly inspired by and grateful for the outpouring of community support for the campaign to acquire this work,” according to a statement from the museum. The DMA said it had raised “tens of millions of dollars” in pledges toward the purchase.

Director Maxwell Anderson said in the statement that it “was a privilege to be responsible for the safekeeping of this masterwork as we assembled commitments towards its purchase. The fortunate few who saw it in person will not soon forget its beauty, power and majesty.” 

Of course we need STEM [Science, Technology, subject graduates, but that does not mean we don't also need arts and humanities graduates (this sort of dubious see-saw thinking also infects discussions of private and public sectors). As recruitment officer for a School of Arts I often come across unsubstantiated assertions that there are no jobs for art historians or philosophers. This is not true. The creative industries, heritage and tourism and the cultural sector constitute a vibrant and substantial part of the UK economy. At a recent careers event at the V&A I heard a fascinating talk by a designer, Chris Sherwin - Head of Sustainability at Seymourpowell, about how a huge amount of industrial waste and environmental damage is simply caused by poor design. Scientists need arty types, and vice versa.

Arguments that we can "no longer afford the arts" are not only uncivilised, they fly in the face of evidence to the contrary of their importance for the economy.

I think one of the most important things in life is to have a balance, to help you see the whole picture…or at least to be able to appreciate that there is more than one way of looking at things. Art, for me, is the means to do this…and it will benefit the whole of society if more attention is paid to this vitally important and enriching aspect of our lives.

Actually, there might be some evidence that he did spend time in England.  There are suggestions that he was in Hull later on in life (reported by Vertue) as well drawings of both St Albans and Windsor Castle.

It is time we all accept the fact that a traditional four-year liberal arts education is a poor investment for America's middle class. Student debt is now at the $1 trillion mark with graduates of four-year institutions facing an average of $25,000 in debt. The U.S. Department of Labor estimates that in 2012, 1.5 million recent college graduates, or 53.6 percent of those students with bachelor's degrees are jobless or underemployed.

Students and their parents need to think carefully before investing the $7,605 a year that the College Board estimates as the average tuition at a public four-year institution. This figure doesn't include room and board, Friday night pizzas, books or lattes.

Today's economy cannot support more art history or philosophy majors. Students and their parents must consider careers in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math). That's where the jobs are and there is an inexpensive, quick way to qualify for these jobs -- enrolling at a community college.

The papers of one of the great early 18th century art collectors have been published on The art world in Britain 1660 to 1735 website. The 56 letters, 87 bills and receipts, and miscellaneous accounts, inventories and other documents of James Stanley, 10th Earl of Derby (1664-1736) of Knowsley Hall, comprise the largest archive yet found of the early 18th century art trade. Most of these papers remain at Knowsley Hall.

Derby's collecting can be reconstructed in amazing detail and he emerges as one of the most ambitious connoisseurs of his age. His London agent's account books document a decade of copious and self-assured expenditure, and there is a complete paper trail describing the importation of artefacts from Italy. The best documented agents are two painter dealers, Thomas Wright and Hamlet Winstanley, whose activities on Derby's behalf in London and Italy in the mid 1720s are described in many letters.

The papers are also an important source for the study of the early 18th century art world. They deal with the acquisition of prints, drawings, paintings and sculpture; purchases both in London and abroad; from dealers and at auction; purchases on the secondary market as well as direct commissions from painters; and not only the direct costs of art works, but also framing, colours and other studio materials, customs duties and packaging. They feature painters, picture sellers, importers, print sellers, sculptors, frame makers, shippers and carriers.

Mr Hirst’s company, Science Ltd, said that “Larry Gagosian and Damien have reached an amicable decision to part company”, adding that the artist would continue his relationship with a second gallery, White Cube, in London.

Gagosian issued a statement, saying: “It has been a great honour to work with Damien over the last 17 years culminating with the worldwide showing of the Complete Spot Paintings 1986-2011 at all 11 Gagosian galleries this year;We wish him conti­nued success for the future.”