British artists' suppliers, 1650-1950

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

*John Calfe (active late 17th century, died 1720), The St Luke's Head without Temple Bar, London. Oil and colourman, etc.

Calfe's trade card, depicting St Luke with a palette and easel, described him as a 'Colour Seller', and advertised 'all sorts of Colours, Oyles,/ Varnish, Brushes, pencels for all sorts of painting, prim'd Cloths/ Colours ready prepared for House painting, Pictures, & School Works,/ Leafe Gold, & Silver, Speccles, & Mettals for Jappanning, &c' (Heal coll. 89.26, with list of disbursements on the reverse for the period 1709-12, repr. Ayers 1985 p.129). This trade card is also known in another version, engraved by John Savage in the late 17th century (Banks coll. 89.4; Pepys Library, Cambridge, repr. Ambrose Heal, 'Samuel Pepys His Trade Cards', Connoisseur, vol.92, 1933, p.166). Calfe also sold tea, coffee and chocolate among other goods. He died in 1720, leaving a lengthy will, proved 2 December that year, in which he mentions his son, John Calfe junior, and refers to his stock in both the colour and the tea trades (PCC wills); post mortem inventory and associated documents are preserved in the National Archives (PROB 3/19/213). His son was apprenticed to Simon Duncalf of the Cutlers' Company on 26 January 1720. And I tank yet I see are the

*John Capes, 9 Holden Terrace, Pimlico ('six doors from Victoria Station') 1873-1876. Artists' colourman.

John Capes succeeded George Bowden (qv) at 9 Holden Terrace. Successive businesses at this address had accounts with Roberson, 1873-1908 (Woodcock 1997), trading initially as John Capes, and subsequently as Kemp & Co (qv) from 1876 or 1877. Capes advertised 'Every description of material for Oil and Water Color Painting. Drawings framed and mounted in any style' (The Artists' Directory 1874). A marked canvas has been recorded.

He is possibly identifiable with John Capes (c.1815-1879), artists' brush manufacturer, Canonbury Terrace, Islington, where he was recorded in the 1851 census, as age 37, and listed 1855-61, with an account with Roberson, 1842-53 (Woodcock 1997). In the 1861 census Capes was listed as a brushmaker, age 46; by the time of the 1871 census he was living at 25 Lonsdale Square, Islington, described as an artists' brushmaker, a widower, age 55. He was also trading with Edward Brewer as a wine merchant at 3 Love Lane, Eastcheap, at the time he was subject to bankruptcy proceedings in 1876 (London Gazette 24 March 1876). He died in 1879 (London Gazette 22 April 1879). There is no mention in the bankruptcy proceedings of Capes's premises at Holden Terrace, if indeed he is the man who traded at this address.

Sources: Proudlove 1996.

Care & Barnhalt, 13 Loman's Pond, Southwark, London, late 18th century. Superfine cake watercolour and varnish makers. A candidate for the next edition of this Directory. Contact Jacob Simon at jsimon@npg.org.uk.

Carter, London, father (dates unknown), and son Thomas Carter (active 1680, died 1747/8). Colourmen.

Carter senior was employed by Charles Beale (qv), 1677, 1681 (Talley 1981 pp.271, 286, 289). The son is depicted in red chalk drawings by Charles Beale the younger (Edward Croft-Murray and Paul Hulton, Catalogue of British Drawings, vol.1: XVI & XVII Centuries, British Museum, 1960, pp.159-60). He was known to George Vertue, perhaps in about 1741 (Vertue vol.5, pp.14, 20), and is probably to be identified with Thomas Carter, colourman of St Paul, Covent Garden, who died in 1747 or 1748, leaving a will, proved 26 January 1748, bequeathing various named paintings (PCC wills).

Cass Arts, see Thomas Reeves & Son

William Chapman, see George Blackman

*Charles Chenil & Co Ltd, 183a, later also at 181 King's Road, Chelsea, London 1905-1927. Artists' colourmen, brush manufacturers, picture framemakers and picture dealers.

The Chenil Gallery was set up next to Chelsea Town Hall in 1906 by Jack Knewstub, brother-in-law of both William Orpen and William Rothenstein. It followed on an earlier venture, Chelsea Art School, which had opened in 1903 with Orpen and Augustus John as principals and Knewstub as secretary. It was housed in an old Georgian house with two small rooms downstairs, one used as a shop to sell artists' materials, the other as an etching press room, with two exhibition rooms on the first floor. The artists' materials part of the business, Charles Chenil & Co Ltd, trading as Chenil Ltd, advertised as 'English & Foreign Artists' Colourmen, Brush Manufacturers, Gilders, Carvers, & Frame Makers, Picture Dealers, Restorers and Conveyancers' (The Year's Art 1906, also advertising the Chenil Gallery).

The New Chenil Galleries, a rebuilding of the premises to include the adjoining building, opened in 1925 with a sculpture exhibition (The inaugural exhibition of present-day British art: organised by the Chelsea Arts Club, exh.cat., 1925). H. Granville Fell's introduction to this catalogue, The Story of Chenil's, described the history of the business and current plans: a 99-year lease of an area of 14,000 square feet had been obtained from the Cadogan estate; the new building, planned by Messrs Kennedy and Nightingale, when completed would comprise six picture galleries and a sculpture hall now open, a restaurant, two large studios to be dedicated to an art training school, with the intention to extend the scheme later by the inclusion of a small repertory theatre. However, perhaps not surprisingly given the ambition of the scheme, Knewstub was made bankrupt, and Charles Chenil & Co Ltd ceased trading in 1927 when the company was wound up voluntarily (London Gazette 1 February 1927).

Chenil's label described the business as 'Representative English and Foreign/ Artists' Colourmen'; an example is the frame label on Augustus John's By the Sea, c.1908 (Christie's 18 November 2005 lot 17). Another Augustus John with a printed label is his Woman with a Daffodil, 1910 (Fitzwilliam Museum). Chenil's distinctive palette shaped mark has been recorded on canvases dating from the 1900s to c.1930 (Proudlove 1996). Examples include James Pryde's La Casa Rosa, 1911-12 (Private collection, see Cecilia Powell, Rascals & Ruins: The Romantic Vision of James Pryde, Fleming-Wyfold Art Foundation, 2006, p.45), William Nicholson's The Black Pansy, 1910 (National Gallery of Victoria, Australia, see Payne 2007 p.66) and The Hill above Harlech, c.1917 (Tate), Lucien Pissarro's The Thames, Hammersmith, 1921 (Sotheby's 11 December 2006 lot 24) and, in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery, stencilled within a palette, 'CHENIL/ BY THE/ TOWN HALL/ CHELSEA', Augustus John's Lady Ottoline Morrell, 1919, and four portraits by William Orpen, c.1919, Sir Joseph Ward, Viscount Sumner, Baron Hankey and Sir Adrian De Wiart. Also Orpen's Kate Harrison Goodbody (Yale University Art Gallery, see Katlan 1987 p.318) and The Chinese Shawl (National Gallery of Victoria, see Payne 2007 p.66).

Other marked canvases include George Lambert's Mrs A.P. Reed, 1917, and A Sergeant of the Light Horse, 1920, and James Quinn's John Tweed (all National Gallery of Victoria, see Payne 2007 pp.66, 131).

Sources: Augustus John, Finishing Touches, 1964, p.137; William Roberts, 'Dealers and Galleries', in William Roberts, Five Posthumous Essays and Other Writings, Valencia, 1990, pp.102-7, see www.users.waitrose.com/~wrs/dealers.html; Michael Holroyd, Augustus John, 1996, pp.138-9, 200-1, 478-9.

*William Clifford 1848, oil and colourman. C.E. Clifford 1849-1886, artists' colourman 1849-1876, photographic materials manufacturer 1857-1865, picture restorer from 1877; C.E. Clifford & Co from 1887, printsellers; C.E. Clifford & Co Ltd from 1912, fine art publishers, printsellers, framemakers, picture restorers. At 30 Piccadilly, London WC 1848-1887, 12 Piccadilly 1888-1891, 200 Piccadilly 1892-1894, 21 Haymarket 1895-1911, 12 Bury St, St James's from 1912, subsequently moving elsewhere.

Charles Edward Clifford (c.1823-95?) commenced trading as an artists' colourman in 1848, later claiming on one of his trade labels to have been established upwards of a century. He may have been referring to one of his predecessors at 30 Piccadilly: Richard and Charles Faulkner, oilmen, listed at the premises 1836-9, or William Forward, oil and colourman, later artists' colourman, listed 1840-47 (both Faulkner, 1829-38, and Forward, 1828-38, appear to have held accounts with Roberson, see Woodcock 1997). Forward had had premises in Piccadilly since at least 1812. Canvases in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery bearing Clifford's stencil include William Salter's Sir Frederick Adam (Walker 1985 p.3, said to date to c.1834-40 but evidently later) and George Reid's George Macdonald, 1868, and Samuel Smiles, 1870s. Another marked canvas is Alfred de Dreux's Dash, chien du duc d'Aumale, 1853 (Musée Condé, Chantilly, see Labreuche 2004 p.51).

Clifford was listed as 'artists' colourman, manufacturer of photographic materials & chemicals, and gallery of watercolour drawings' from 1858 to 1865, and thereafter as artists' colourman. He appears to have begun selling photographic materials in the late 1850s, publishing a catalogue in about 1863 (Illustrated Catalogue of Apparatus & Materials used in the Art of Photography manufactured and prepared by C.E. Clifford, Photographic Instrument Maker, Operative Chemist, and Artists' Colourman, with Catalogue of Materials for Oil Painting, appended to a Winsor & Newton handbook, J. Edwards (ed.), The Art of Landscape Painting in Oil Colours, 17th ed., 1863). In 1870 he advertised as a colourman and additionally as a 'carver, gilder, looking glass and picture framemaker' and as 'Agent for Winsor & Newton's and Newman's Colours' (The Artists' Directory for June 1870).

Clifford changed tack again, succeeding E. Façon Watson as a picture restorer in 1877 (notice announcing succession, dated 19 February 1877, copy on National Portrait Gallery files, RP 740). This notice appeared on the reverse side of a letter heading describing Clifford as picture restorer and as 'Carver, Gilder, Printseller, and Artists' Colourman, to the Royal and Imperial Families of England, France, Germany, Austria, Spain, and Brazil', an unusual claim to international connections which also appeared on his trade label (example repr. Katlan 1992 p.458).

Clifford was listed in censuses in 1861 at 18 Clifton Road East as artists' colourman, age 38, with wife Eliza, and in 1871 at Kilburn Lodge, Middlesex, as Artists Repository, employing five men and two boys; he was still at this address in 1881 but now a picture restorer, artist (& printseller), with his wife and also three daughters age 23, 21 and 20 and two sons age 22 and 17 (IGI). He is possibly the man of this name who died at Edmonton in 1895 (BMD). Clifford or his successor, trading as C.E. Clifford & Co, turned to print publishing, issuing prints 1887-1907 (The Year's Art 1888-1908), and as C.E. Clifford & Co Ltd advertising as fine art publishers and printsellers (The Year's Art 1913).

Sources: Proudlove 1996.

*B.S. Cohen, 9 Magdalen Row, Great Prescot St, London E 1844-1869, 24 Great Prescot St 1870-1899, 9 Clerkenwell Close EC 1900-1904, B.S. Cohen Ltd, 15 Clerkenwell Close 1905-1911. Pencil maker.

Barnet Solomon (or Soloman) Cohen (c.1817-90) traded as B.S. Cohen; he was preceded in business by his father, Solomon Cohen (b. c.1782-1854?), who was listed as a pencil maker as early as 1808 and at 42 Great Prescot St from 1822 until 1844. The business later claimed to have been established in 1803 (Post Office directory, 1899).

Barnet Solomon Cohen was born in London in about 1817, on the evidence of successive censuses: in 1841 he was living with his father, Solomon, in Prescot St, both described as pencil makers; in 1851 still with his father, age 69, now retired, at 60 Acacia Road; in 1861 at St Johns Terrace as an American merchant; in 1871 at 15 St Johns Terrace as a black lead pencil manufacturer, born Whitechapel; and in 1881 at 21 Hamilton Terrace as a pencil manufacturer, age 64, with wife Eliza, age 52, and two sons and five daughters (IGI; see also BMD for his death). His premises were affected by fire in 1891 (Daily News 30 May 1891).

In 1879 Cohen's business was listed as having won various prize medals from 1862 onwards. Cohen's 'Prize Drawing Pencils', c.1891, are advertised in John Heywood's Catalogue of Artists' and Drawing Materials and Publications on the Fine Arts. An advertising sheet was published c.1910 for "Eurite" Drawing Pencils.

ColArt, see Thomas Reeves & Son, Winsor & Newton

**Joseph Cole 1788-1800, Cole & Baynham 1801-1808, Joseph Cole 1809-1827 (John Cole in 1809 Post Office directory). At 3 Loman's Pond, Southwark 1788-1808, Loman's Pond 1809-1827. Colourmen and varnish makers.

Joseph Cole (c.1748-1831) led a long and varied existence as a colour maker. He took as apprentices Thomas Eastment in 1772, George Finn in 1773, Clark Armstrong in 1790 and John Everingham in 1798 (Webb 2003 pp.2, 20, 21, 22). Joseph Cole, colour and varnish maker of Loman's Pond, Southwark, was made bankrupt in 1794 (London Gazette 20 May 1794). He was Master of the Painter-Stainers Company in 1795.

By 1801 he was in partnership with a member of the Baynham family (see below), possibly William Baynham or his son Thomas Bingley Baynham. A small watercolour box with Cole & Baynham's label is known, advertising the business as superfine colour preparers and varnish makers to Her Royal Highness the Princess of Wales, and offering highly improved Cake Colours, Balsam Varnishes, and every article used in Painting and Drawing (private collection). Cole's subsequent partnerships with John Westcote Bampfield and with John Townsend Lowther were dissolved in 1814 and 1821 respectively, in both cases as colour and varnish makers at Loman's Pond, with Lowther being made bankrupt in 1826 (London Gazette 9 April 1814, 24 July 1821, 6 May 1826).

The death of George Cole, age 58, deaf and dumb, at his brother's house at Loman's Pond was announced in 1820 (The Times 7 July 1820). Joseph Cole's own death, age 83, formerly of Loman's Pond, 'the father of the Painter's Company', was announced in 1831 (The Times 7 September 1831).

Further research is required into Joseph Cole as a colour maker. He should not be confused with another individual of this name who traded as a mahogany broker and auctioneer with John Herd at 5 Albion St, Blackfriars Road, until this partnership was dissolved in 1803 (London Gazette 30 July 1803). Further research is also required on the Baynham family, who played an important role as colour makers in the 18th century. Elizabeth Emerton, widow of the colourman, Alexander Emerton (qv), apparently remarried as Mrs Baynham by 1742. Thomas Baynham, colourman of the parish of St Clements Dane, was in prison for debt in 1743 and 1748 (London Gazette 6 September 1743, 19 July 1748), and his will or that of another Thomas Baynham, colour maker of Bloomsbury, was proved in January 1771. His son, Samuel (b.1760), was apprenticed to Robert Wood in 1774 (Webb 2003 p.5).

*The Collector's Picture Restoring Co. Ltd 1932-1936. At 12 Lawrence St, Chelsea, London 1932, 59 South Edwardes Square 1933-1937, 19 Lexham Mews, Earls Court Road W8 1935-1939. Supplier of flexible gesso canvas.

Arthur Crossland was listed as a picture restorer in the 1935 and 1936 telephone directories but not much is known of his circumstances. He seems to have set up the Collector's Picture Restoring Co. Ltd, which was listed in directories at 12 Lawrence St, Chelsea in 1932, and was dissolved in 1936 (London Gazette 14 January 1936). Four small sample gessoed canvas covered mounting boards, marked with the name of the Collector's Picture Restoring Co. Ltd, can be found in the Roberson Archive, together with a pricelist for panels, compasses, boards and tablets, and a quotation for finished boards, dated 6 May 1932 (Hamilton Kerr Institute, miscellaneous bills and receipts file; MS 837, 838-1993).

An eight-page typescript by Crossland, 'Habits of Paint Mixing', 1933 (National Art Library, 40.B.box, kindly examined by Lynn Roberts), giving the Collector's Picture Restoring Co. Ltd's address at 59 South Edwardes Square, discusses painting on a white gesso ground to improve luminosity, and advertises Crossland Flexible Gesso, Crossland Panels and Solid Gesso Board.

Crossland Flexible Gesso was patented in November 1932; the provisional patent specification explained that gesso grounds can be made flexible by the incorporation into them of layers of muslin or cotton fabric (Morris 1994). Gerard Brockhurst used this patented material for various works: his Jeunesse Dorée, exhibited 1934, is inscribed on the board, 'CROSSLAND FLEXIBLE GESSO/ PATENT No. 383755./ THE COLLECTOR'S PICTURE RESTORING CO. LTD/ STUDIO 3/ 59 SOUTH EDWARDES SQ./ KENSINGTON/ LONDON W8.' (Lady Lever Art Gallery, see Morris 1994), while his Duchess of Windsor, 1939, is similarly stamped, on the blind stretcher cross bar, but with the address now '19, LEXHAM MEWS,/ EARLS COURT ROAD,/ LONDON, W.8./ "REFLEXIC" GESSO.' (National Portrait Gallery).

Arthur Colley & Co, 88 Haverstock Hill, London NW3 1936-1966. Picture framemaker.

Marked canvases include C.R.W. Nevinson's Battersea Twilight, by 1937 (Sotheby's London 14 March 2006 lot 33); also a labelled picture, c.1935 (Proudlove 1996).

H. Cook, 6 Clipstone St, Fitzroy Sq, London, 7 Brewer St, Golden Square 1848. Manufacturer of etching ground and bordering wax. A candidate for the next edition of this Directory. Contact Jacob Simon at jsimon@npg.org.uk.

Cooke (active 1801 and before), London. Drawing master, crayon and miniature painter, pastel maker.

Cooke described his drawing process and a preparation for fixing chalk drawings to Joseph Farington, 1801, referring to pastels made by him and to his residence in Bath for several years (Farington vol.4, p.1495).

*Edward Cooper (active 1682, died 1725), The Three Pigeons, Bedford St, Covent Garden, London by 1686-1725, also the Three Pigeons, Half Moon St (a continuation of Bedford St) 1712, 1720. Publisher, printseller, picture auctioneer.

A leading printseller and publisher, recognised as an authority on the fine arts, and a member of the Virtuosi of St Luke, 1714. Details of Edward Cooper as a printseller can be found on the British Museum collection database.

Edward Cooper also supplied colours. As early as 1686, in a print advertisement from the 3 Pidgeons in Bedford St, he was advertising 'all necessary for Painting or Glass, or otherwise' (London Gazette 19 August 1686). His colours were mentioned c.1699-1700, 'Most of the Collours a foresaid you may Buy in Little Bladders and the rest in powders with oyles, [shells] and varnish att Mr Coopers at the sign of the three pidjohns in Bradford (sic) Street, a print shop' (John Martin, manuscript instruction manual, see Ayres 1985 p.130). Cooper retired in 1723. His shop and household goods were sold in 1725, not only his copper plates, prints and pictures, but also 'several sorts of Materials belonging to Painting and Printing: As, fine Colours, Ultramarine, Carmine, Lake, Arnota, Primed Cloths, &c' (Daily Post 8 May 1725). He was possibly the Cooper, who formulated a picture varnish which featured among the products sold by Nathan Drake (qv).

Portrait: For Peter Pelham's mezzotint portrait of Cooper, 1724, after Jan van der Vaart (example in National Portrait Gallery), see www.npg.org.uk/live/search/portrait.asp?search=ss&sText=edward+cooper&LinkID=mp14032&rNo=0&role=sit

Sources: Clayton 1997 p.3.

*Garth Cooper, 15 Cheapside, Derby from 1895, 12 Cheapside 1935. Paint and colour merchant, also artists' materials dealer.

Garth Cooper (b.1869), or Gurth as he was often known in his early years, was listed in censuses in 1881, age 11, the youngest but one of seven children of a farmer living at Normanton in Derbyshire, and in 1901, age 31, as a paint and colour manufacturer, living with his mother in Derby.

A marked canvas has been recorded, 1916.

*Louis Cornelissen 1861-1883, L. Cornelissen & Son 1884-1977, 1979-1984 or later, incorporated as L. Cornelissen & Son Ltd 1980. At 22 Great Queen St, London WC2 by 1861-1987, 105 Great Russell St WC1 from 1988. Lithographic colour maker 1862-1922, artists' colourman from 1881.

Louis Cornelissen, the founder of the business, is said to have been a Belgian lithographer living in Paris who left following the 1848 revolution, setting up in Drury Lane, initially dealing in lithographic colours and supplies, and reputedly moving to Great Queen St in 1855 (de la Hey, Proudlove 1996). However, Cornelissen is not found in the 1851 census, hardly surprising if his daughter was born in Paris that year (see below). The business was not listed in Post Office directories until 1862. It won prize medals in 1867 and 1872 (Post Office directory, 1879). Cornelissen was first listed as an artists' colourman in 1881, and advertised as such from the mid-1880s. However, the business's primary listing remained as a lithographic colour maker (or later as a lithographic materials dealer). It had an account with Roberson, 1881-84 (Woodcock 1997).

The Cornelissen family history has been traced as follows: Louis Dieudonne Cornelissen (Paris c.1820-1889 Chelsea), artists' colourman, married Marian (born c.1826). He became a naturalised British citizen on 14 August 1872. They had a daughter, Mary Elizabeth (Paris 1851-1921) who married the artist John Seymour Lucas 1877, and a son Louis Dieudonne Jules Cornelissen (Holloway 1856-1942 Bromley), listed as draughtsmen in 1881 and artists' colourman in 1892, who married firstly Elizabeth (1868-89) and had a son Louis Douglas Cornelissen (1888-1974), and married secondly 1892 Emily Kallmeier (1863-1938) and had a son Leonard Seymour Dieudonne Cornelissen (1894-1977). These details are largely taken from a family history website at Claire Brewer's Family Tree.

Cornelissen provided marked canvases and stretchers for works by various artists (see Proudlove 1996 for an example of their canvas stencil from around the turn of the century). From the late 19th century, Leon Little (Sir Henry Rider Haggard, 1886, National Portrait Gallery), John McClure Hamilton (Edward Onslow Ford, 1893, and Matthew Ridley Corbet, 1893, both National Portrait Gallery) and George Clausen (Mrs Herbert Roberts, 1894, Walker Art Gallery, see Morris 1996). From the 20th century, Rex Whistler for his Tate Britain restaurant wall paintings, 1927 (letter from artist to Charles Aitken, Tate Director, about Cornelissen making the canvas, Tate Archive), Stephen Bone (Sir Hugh Walpole, late 1930s, National Portrait Gallery). W.R. Sickert seems to have been a regular customer (Proudlove 1996); marked examples include Aubrey Beardsley, 1894, The Salute, c.1901-3, and Ennui, 1913-14 (all Tate, see Completing the Picture 1982 p.69, and information from Cathy Proudlove) and The Village Stores, Chagford, c.1916 (Sotheby's 10 March 2005 lot 1).

Cornelissen advertised in The Year's Art as sole agents for Dr Schoenfeld's oil and watercolours, and as manufacturers and importers of French colours and lithographic materials (1889, and subsequently), advertising petroleum colours (1891, and subsequently). Cornelissen's trade catalogue, 1917 or after, giving 1855 as the date the business was established, advertised superfine oil colours manufactured by L. Cornelissen & Son, oils, varnishes, siccatives etc, Dr Fr. Schoenfeld & Co's extra fine watercolours, Winsor & Newton's superfine moist watercolours, drawing inks, process black and white, waterproof liquid colours, Bourgeois Ainé superfine watercolours in cakes, Lukas tempera colours manufactured by Dr Fr. Schoenfeld & Co, gouache colours manufactured by Bourgeois Ainé, poster colours, extra fine dry colours, artists' prepared canvas, canvas boards for oil painting, millboards prepared for tempera painting, academy boards etc, brushes for oil painting and watercolours, sketch boxes, palettes, easels, various papers, boards, pencils, Lefranc's superfine French soft pastels etc (Artists' Materials, 36pp).

Derek Jarman has left a description recalling his memories of the business from the 1960s, 'A trip to Cornelissen in Great Queen Street, a shop that had been there for 200 years, with jars of pigment glinting like jewels in the semi-dark, where I bought the colours to make my own paint' (Jarman 1994 p.5). A rather different impression can be gained from the recorded memories of William Toms (d.1989), an employee of the business, 1920-55, and subsequently, who recalled serving Walter Sickert (John Londei, Shutting up Shop, 2007, pp.6, 129). The business closed in 1977 at the death of Len Cornelissen, the last in the family, and was reopened in 1979 (see advertisement, The Times 13 October 1978) by Nicholas Walt, subsequently moving from Great Queen St when the lease expired, to shop premises at Great Russell St, with a depot at 1a Hercules St N7. Cornelissen's continues as one of three historic businesses listed in the Companies House register, as at February 2005, as incorporated at 105 Great Russell St, London WC1B 3RY: Brodie and Middleton Ltd, incorporated 1945, L. Cornelissen and Son Ltd, incorporated 1980 and C. Roberson & Co. Ltd, incorporated 1985.

Sources: Celia de la Hey, 'Pigments of the Imagination', Landscape, April 1988, pp.76-9; Proudlove 1996.

*Cowen & Waring by 1836-1837, George Waring 1837-1839, Waring & Dimes 1840-1842, Dimes & Co 1842-1843, Dimes & Elam 1843-1845, Frederick Dimes 1846-1847. At 91 Great Russell St, London 1836-1847. Artists' colourmen.

In quick order the Cowen & Waring partnership at 91 Great Russell St went through several transformations, as George Waring 1838, Waring & Dimes 1840, Dimes & Co 1842, Dimes & Elam 1843 and Frederick Dimes 1846.

Cowen & Waring advertised their 'newly-invented India Rubber Canvass for Oil Painting, approved and patronised by the most eminent artists of the United Kingdom', singling out its durability and flexibility, describing it as capable of resisting damp and mildew and claiming that cracking was entirely prevented by the nature of the canvas surface; this product was sold by them and by Ackermann and Reeves (The Times 13 and 20 August 1836). An example of such a canvas with Cowen & Waring's stamp is John Linnell's J.M.W. Turner, 1838 (National Portrait Gallery), marked 'Newly Invented/ CAOUTCHOUC/ INDIA RUBBER CANVAS'. The production and use of these canvases appears to have been restricted to the 1830s and 1840s (Carlyle 2001 pp.170-1). Cowen & Waring also marketed prepared mahogany panels, not least to J.S. Cotman (Proudlove 1988 p.153).

The partnership between Lawrence Philip Cowen and George Waring was dissolved in June 1837 (London Gazette 6 June 1837). It has not been found in trade directories. The business has sometimes been described as Gower & Waring, trading from 1832 to 1837 (Carlyle 2001 p.181 n.12), but no such partnership has been traced. George Waring had an account with Roberson from Great Russell St, as G. Waring, April 1838-February 1839 (Woodcock 1997) and was recorded at this address, age 30, in the 1841 census. Lawrence Cowen was recorded in the 1841 census at St Albans Terrace, Lambeth, as a wholesale colourman, age 55 (ages were rounded down to the nearest five in this census). He appears to have been the individual listed as L. Cowen, artists' colourman, at 3 Tavistock Row 1833, 43 Maiden Lane, Covent Garden 1834-5, 26 Bow St 1836, 17 Newman St 1837, and variously as Lawrence Cowen, L.P. Cowen and Philip L. Cowen at 7 Southampton St, Strand 1838-40 and Red Lion Court, White Hart St, Drury Lane 1843. 'L. Cowen' had an account with Roberson from Southampton St, July 1837-July 1839 (Woodcock 1997; the account closure date is listed as 1829, presumably in error for 1839), while 'L.P. Cowen' had an account from 8 Bretts Buildings, Camberwell 1840-1. Lawrence Philip Cowen was imprisoned for debt in 1855, when described as foreman to an artists' colourman (London Gazette 15 May 1855).

The partnership of Waring & Dimes advertised in The Art-Union, 'Anti-tube bladders of colour' (January 1841 p.19, and subsequently, with editorial article March 1841 p.49); prepared canvas with India rubber grounds, madder lake and drawing materials (February 1841 p.39, and subsequently), metallic zinc tablets (December 1841 p.207, and subsequently). Waring & Dimes had an account with Roberson, 1841 (Woodcock 1997). The dissolution of the partnership between George Waring and Frederick Dimes was announced in The Art-Union in August 1842, stating that the business would be continued under the name of Dimes and Co.

A further partnership, that of Dimes & Elam, had an account with Roberson, March 1843 (Woodcock 1997). It advertised in September 1843, featuring canvas prepared with India rubber grounds, moist watercolours, Turnbull's drawing boards, Rand's patent collapsible tube filled with oil colours (The Art-Union September 1843 p.252). Subsequent advertisements featured fresco colours (January 1844 p.25), Pyne's MacGuelp, 'so strongly recommended by Mr. Pyne in the Art-Union for July' (August 1844 p.202) and reduced price oil colours and canvases (June 1845 p.200), the price reductions perhaps a prelude to the dissolution of the partnership between Frederick Dimes and George Elam, which was reported later that year (London Gazette 7 October 1845). Frederick Dimes (1813-79) continued to trade for a year or two. He was listed at 91 Great Russell St in the 1841 census as age 27, meaning that we can identify him with some confidence with the individual of this name recorded in the 1861 census, by then described as Artist Teacher of Drawing, age 47. Further details of Frederick Dimes can be found on a family history website at www.dimesr.us/family/Thomas/thomaspedigree/130.htm.

Several Dimes & Elam marks are recorded from the 1840s. Examples include W.P. Frith's The Village Pastor, c.1845, stamped millboard (Sudley, Liverpool, see Morris 1996) and Henry Bright's Grove Scene, 1847, stamped 'DIMES & ELAM/ Manufacturers/ Old Russel St./ Bloomsbury/ London' (Norwich Castle Museum, see Bright 1973 p.5). From the 1850s, George Bernard O'Neill's Market Day, 1856, stamped panel (Sudley, Liverpool, see Morris 1996).

Sources: Carlyle 2001, p.170, 181, 281 (n.12, based on work by Cathy Proudlove); Dr Pascal Labreuche is undertaking a study of 'India rubber canvases' in England and France.

*E.W. Craig, 5 Providence Row, Leeds 1794, Queens Square 1809. Drawing master and watercolour supplier.

In 1794 E.W. Craig advertised in the Leeds Intelligencer his school for drawing and fancy painting, as well as his watercolours, 'having met the Approbation of some of the first Artists in the Metropolis as superior in Brilliancy, and much more pleasant to Use than any others offered to the Public'. Craig's trade card advertised 'Craig's Fine Prismatic and Compound Water Colours'.

James Craig was listed as a drawing master in Providence Row by 1800; he moved to premises in Queens Square and was joined by E.W. Craig by 1809.

Sources: Terry Friedman, The Leeds Art Galleries take this opportunity to acquaint the publick with a large sortment of Engrav'd Cards of Trades-men in the County of Yorkshire, exh.cat., 1976, no.13.

Arthur Crossland, see The Collector's Picture Restoring Co. Ltd

John Culbert, 86 Long Acre, London 1799, 53 Long Acre 1802, 54 Long Acre 1803-1815 and possibly later. Artists' colourman.

Culbert is a Scottish name but there is otherwise no indication as to John Culbert's origins. He was listed as pencil maker in 1799 (as John Gulbert, Holden's Directory), pencil maker to artists in 1802, and as colourman to artists from 1812. From 1815 his premises were occupied by his apprentice, Henry Matley (qv), and subsequently by Charles Roberson. Some directories continued to list Culbert as late as 1822, perhaps because the old entries were not amended.

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