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

Daler-Rowney Ltd, see Rowney

Matthew Darly, various addresses before moving to 39 Strand 1766-1780, 159 Fleet St 1780-1781. Engraver and teacher of engraving, printseller, paper hanging manufacturer, artists' colourman.

*Matthew Darly (c.1720-78?), also known as Matthias Darley, made many engravings of furnishings, ornament and architecture, including plates for Chippendale's The Director, 1754-62, and also produced numerous caricatures. He advertised his 'Manufactory for Paper Hangings' (trade card, Banks coll.). In 1766 he moved to 39 Strand, the shop depicted in The Macaroni Print Shop (1772), where he and his wife Mary sold caricatures and other engravings, and also supplied materials for artists and amateurs, including 'transparent colours for staining drawings' in 1776 (Hardie 1967 p.17), and the following year all sorts of materials used in the polite arts of drawing and engraving, including 'prepared Papers, Chalks, Copper-plates, Black lead Pencils transparent Colours, &c' (Public Advertiser 9 January 1777). Darly may have died in 1778, the business being carried on by his wife for a few years.

Portrait: For Darly's satirical engraved self-portrait, 1771 (example in National Portrait Gallery), see www.npg.org.uk/live/search/portrait.asp?search=ss&sText=darly&LinkID=mp14040&rNo=0&role=sit

Sources: Christopher Gilbert, 'The Early Furniture Designs of Matthias Darly', Furniture History vol.11, 1975, pp.33-9; Christopher Gilbert, The Life and Work of Thomas Chippendale, 1978, pp.5-7; Ian Maxted, The London Book Trades 1775-1800: a preliminary checklist of members at www.devon.gov.uk/etched?_IXP_=1&_IXR=111152; Timothy Clayton, 'Darly, Matthew (c.1720-1778?)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford, 2004, vol.15, pp.160-1.

*Charles Davis 1763-1784 or later, Charles Davis & Son to 1794, Charles Davis jun from 1794. At the Golden Boy, Horse St, Bath 1763-1764 or later, Garrard St c.1777, Westgate St c.1777-1784 or later, 2 Westgate Buildings by 1789-1794. Painters and artists' colourmen.

Davis advertised as a coach, sign and house painter, as well as a supplier and gilder of picture frames (Boddely's Bath Journal 30 April 1764, see Sloman 2002 pp.66, 231n). In 1763 he was offering watercolours in shells, palettes and palette knives, oils and colours, best London brushes and primed canvas (William Whitley, Thomas Gainsborough, 1915, p.93). In 1777 he announced that he had removed from Garrard St to Westgate St where he sold 'all sorts of best colours, dry or prepared in oil or water, primed cloths, tools, pencils, pallets, pallet knives, easels & straining frames, crayons, drawing papers, Italian black, white & red chalk and every article that is used in painting and drawing' (Bath Chronicle 7 August 1777, as quoted in the Whitley papers vol.3 p.283). He was recorded as a painter and colourman in 1783 (Bailey's Western Midlands directory).

The partnership, Charles Davis & Son, at 2 Westgate Buildings, was dissolved on 5 January 1794, and the business continued by Charles Davis jun, who advertised funerary achievements, pictures cleaned, lined & repaired, colours and oils for house painting, gold leaf etc (Bath Chronicle 20 February 1794). Westgate Buildings was a favourite address for Bath artists in the last two decades of the 18th century, and hence a good location for a colourman; in addition to Thomas Beach and Robert Edge Pine, a number of lesser-known painters worked there (see Susan Sloman, 'Artists' Picture Rooms in 18th-Century Bath', Bath History, vol.6, 1996, p.149).

James Davis, 4 Wilson St, Drury Lane, London by 1859-1875. Artists' colour box manufacturer 1861-1875, previously listed as a tinplate worker.

Recorded at 4 Wilson St in the 1861 census as a tinplate worker, age 41, with wife and four children, the older sons, ages 17 and 15, also described as tinplate workers.

Robert Davis, 35 Chenies Mews, Bedford Square, London WC 1857-1870, also 36 Chenies Mews 1861-1870, 10 Huntley St, Tottenham Court Road 1858-1870. Artists' colourman, subsequently a cab proprietor.

Robert Davis (born c.1824) may be the individual of this name recorded in the 1851 census as artists' colourman, age 29, at 8 Old Chapel Road, Kentish Town. He was listed in 1857 as artists' canvas primer and subsequently as artists' colourman in Chenies Mews and Huntley St. These two roads run parallel to each other and it has been suggested that Huntley may have occupied adjoining properties (Proudlove 1996). Many marked canvases have been recorded, from as early as 1856 (an early example repr. Proudlove 1996). By 1871 Davis was listed at 10 Huntley St as a cab proprietor, with his age given as 47 in the 1871 census. The premises in Chenies Mews were occupied in 1871 and 1872 by John Locker, artists' colourman, and by Arthur Rayner (qv) from 1873.

Sources: Proudlove 1996.

*Robert Davy by 1811-1843, Charles Davy 1843-1863. At 16 Wardour St, London by 1811-1823, 83 Newman St 1822-1862, 85 Newman St 1863. Artists' colourmen, carvers and gilders.

Robert Davy claimed that his business was established in 1799, according to his label, which is often seen on the back of his panels. However, he is not found in directories before 1811, when he was described as a carver and gilder. He supplied picture frames at Paxton House, Berwickshire, in 1814 (National Archives of Scotland, GD267/4/1, Home-Robertson papers). He took out insurance with the Sun Fire Office as a carver and gilder from 16 Wardour St in 1821 (Guildhall Library, 11936/488/980758). He was also listed as a picture restorer in directories in 1819 and 1827.

By 1825 Davy's special interest in panels and millboards is apparent from his listing as 'Prepared Pannel & Mill-board manufacturer & Artists' colourman, Frame-maker, &c'. The same year he attended a meeting of more than fifty master carvers and gilders who resolved to resist the demands of journeymen for an increase in wages (The Times 30 June 1825). He is probably the Robert Davy who had an account with the colourman, Roberson, 1828-39 (Woodcock 1997). He was recorded in Newman St in the 1841 census as Robert Davy, Artists Colourman, age 70 (ages were rounded down to the nearest five in this census), living with Ann Davy, also age 70, and Jane Davy, age 35.

Charles Davy succeeded his father at 83 Newman St in 1843; his label made the claim that the business had been founded in 1795. He is probably to be identified with the individual born in January 1800 and christened at St Clement Danes, the son of Robert Davy and Ann Frances (IGI). He was recorded at 83 Newman St in the 1851 census as Artists Colourman, age 51, wife Hannah age 48, three sons, Charles Robert, Richard and Jacob, ages 23, 19 and 17, working in the business as journeyman, apprentice and shopman respectively; there were five other younger children or nephews in the house. In 1851 he was subject to bankruptcy proceedings along with two other partners, William Wright and Jacob Dixon, in a goldsmiths and jewellers business (London Gazette 18 March 1851).

In 1859 and 1860 Charles Davy was advertising lay figures, new and second-hand, for sale or hire (The Times 27 May 1859, 24 October 1860). In April 1862 a sale was held of his collection of more than 400 pictures by old and modern masters, together with a lay figure, easels and various picture frames (The Times 4 April 1862). He was last listed as an artists' colourman in 1863. Charles Davy, or more probably his son, Charles Robert Davy, may have been the artist of this name at 14 Russell Place, Fitzroy Square in 1864, who appears as a restorer of paintings at this address in 1865 and 1866, and at 21 Fitzroy St from 1867 until 1871.

Artists using Davy's materials: Robert and Charles Davy's labels for their 'genuine flemish grounds on panel and millboards' claimed the patronage of Thomas Lawrence, President of the Royal Academy. Robert Davy's panels and boards were widely used, including by Landseer, Turner and Clarkson Stanfield, lending credence to his claim to supply the Royal Academy (Proudlove 1996). His panels were also used by Norwich School artists, such as J.S. Cotman and Joseph Clover (Proudlove 1988 p.153).

Works on supports marked with Robert Davy's Wardour St address include John Linnell's 7th Earl of Denbigh, 1821 (Private collection), Robert Ogle as a boy, 1822 (Sotheby's 12 June 2003 lot 81) and his Woodcutters in Windsor Forest, exh.1835, based on a work of c.1816 (Tate), as well as William Blake's panel, The Virgin and Child, ?1825 (Yale Center for British Art, repr. Townsend 2003 p.133).

Examples from the 1820s with his Newman St address include James Atkinson's Earl of Minto, c.1822-30 (National Portrait Gallery), George Hayter's 2nd Earl of Liverpool, 1823 (National Portrait Gallery, see Walker 1985 p.318), Edwin Landseer's Sir Walter Scott, c.1824 (National Portrait Gallery, see Walker 1985 p.439) and Taking the Deer: the Duke of Atholl with Foresters, 1820s (Sudley, see Bennett 1971), and George Richmond's The Creation of Light, 1826 (Tate, see Townsend 2003 p.145).

Robert Davy was frequently used by Richard Parkes Bonington, including his View on the Seine, c.1825 (Virginia Museum of Fine Arts), A Wooded Lane, c.1825 (Yale Center for British Art), Barges on a River, c.1825-6 (Yale Center for British Art, see Patrick Noon, Richard Parkes Bonington: On the Pleasure of Painting, 1991, for items in this selective listing), View in Venice, with San Giorgio Maggiore, 1826 (Huntington Art Collection, see Robyn Asleson and Shelley Bennett, British Paintings at the Huntington, 2001).

Works from the 1830s include John Linnell's Mrs Anne Young, 1831 (Sotheby's 22 March 2005 lot 71) and William Mulready, 1833 (National Portrait Gallery), two works by J.M.W. Turner, exh.1832 (Townsend 1993 p.21, Townsend 1994 p.148), Joseph B. Kidd's Sharp Tailed Sparrow, c.1832 (National Gallery of Art, Washington, repr. Katlan 1992 p.459), and American Goldfinch, c.1831 (with William Reese Company, New Haven, 2005), William Clarkson Stanfield's Orford, 1833 (Wallace Collection, see Ingamells 1985) and Ramsay Richard Reinagle's Sir George Nicholls, 1834 (National Portrait Gallery).

Charles Davy's panels and boards are less commonly found than his father's; an example is George Jones's copy, Viscount Beresford (Cobbe collection, see Alastair Laing, Clerics & Connoisseurs, 2001, p.311). His canvas stamp can be found on a copy after Michael Dahl's Sir John Pratt (National Portrait Gallery) and on Daniel Maclise's The Scottish Lovers, 1863, stencilled 'C. DAVY/ ARTISTS' COLOURS/ OXFORD St., LONDON./ Established 1795.' (Chazen Museum, University of Wisconsin-Madison, information from Joan Gorman, 14 February 2008).

Sources: Proudlove 1996 (repr. an example of R. Davy's label, post-1830).

Thomas Day (c.1733-1807). Painter and restorer.

Prepared vehicles for painting and varnishes, according to his widow, 1808, and sometimes known as 'MacGilp' Day (Farington vol.9, p.3305). A number of individuals by the name of Thomas Day appear in directory listings.

Sources: Waterhouse 1981.

*William De La Cour, The Iron Rails, Coventry Court, Haymarket, London by 1743-1745 or later, The Golden Head, Catherine St, Strand 1747, Mr Read's, Grocer, The Ship, Great Russell St, Covent Garden 1752, The Green Door, Winchester St, New Broad St 1753, Ormonde Quay, Dublin 1753, College Green, Dublin from 1753, Edinburgh 1757-1767. Designer and engraver, portrait painter and scene painter, supplier of watercolours and crayons, drawing master.

William De La Cour (d.1767), also known as Delacour, was presumably of French origin. His first recorded work were his stage designs for G.B. Pescetti's opera, Busiri, at the Kings Theatre in London in 1740. Between 1741 and 1747 he issued a series of books of engraved ornament.

De La Cour issued an attractively engraved London trade card, said to date to c.1743, describing his activities. It is known in two versions giving different addresses, 'De La Cour / AT THE IRON RAILS IN COUENTRY/ Court Hay Markett/ ST: JAMES'S'/ Sells the most Beautifull Crayons of/ A particular Composition, the Best of/ Water Colours, Lead & hair Pencils, Indian/ Ink, Prints & Drawings Old & new,/ Ornaments Landscapes History &c./ He also Designs for all Sorts of/ Trades, & teaches to Draw & Paint in/ Water Colours & Crayons to Gentleman & Ladies both at Home/ or a Broad/ R White scu' (Heal coll. 89.46); a later version, exactly as above but the address reading, 'At the Golden Head in Katherine Street/ in the Strand: opposite/ Mr.Walsh's Musik shop' (Heal coll. 89.45, repr. Ayers 1985, p.103, Banks coll. 89.5).

It was from the address in Coventry Court that De La Cour advertised in 1743, 'a great Choice of very fine Pastels or Crayons, of the most beautiful and useful Colours and can be made Use of either on Paper or in Oil Preparation lately found out by him', later advertising the best watercolours (Daily Advertiser 26 April 1743, 26 December 1743). In 1747 an mezzotint of his portrait, Sir Thomas De Veil, was on sale from his premises in Catherine St. In 1753 he sold his household furniture, pictures, plate, china and linen, noting that he had been invited to establish an academy at Dublin (Public Advertiser 20 February 1753). In Edinburgh in 1760 he was appointed Master of the Trustees' Drawing Academy. He is said to have died at a very old age. His posthumous sale in Edinburgh in 1767 included his blocks for grinding colours (Fleming, see below, p.1225).

Sources: Strickland 1913 p.272; Croft-Murray 1962 pp.199-200; John Fleming, 'Enigma of a Rococo Artist', Country Life, vol.131, 1962, pp.1224-6; Waterhouse 1981.

Constant De Massoul, see Massoul & Co

*William Dicker (active 1749, died 1777/8), Newport St, London. Artists' colourman.

William Dicker of Newport St voted in the 1749 election (A Copy of the Poll Book for Westminster, 1749, p.208). He was listed in Mortimer's Universal Director, 1763, as opposite Newport Market. 'The colour shop in Newport Street' is referred to in Fanny Burney's early correspondence (Whitley 1928, vol.1, p.332), but this reference remains to be traced precisely. It was probably William Dicker who visited Bath in 1769 when he was described by the sculptor, Thomas Parsons, as 'Mr Dicker... an Oil and Colourman in Bloomsbury Square - seems to be a serious good Man' (Susan Sloman, 'An eighteenth-century stone carver's diary identified', The British Art Journal, vol.7, no.3, 2007, p.7).

William Dicker died in 1778, or possibly 1777, referring in his will to his son, Thomas, whom he described as having misapplied himself (PCC wills). Thomas Dicker continued trading in Little Newport St until 1771 when he assigned his estate and affects to his creditors and advertised that his business would be carried on by John Milbourne & Son, oilman of Compton St (Public Advertiser 21 November 1771). The death at Haverfordwest of Thomas Dicker, formerly a colourman in Newport St, was reported in 1787 (Gentleman's Magazine, vol.57, 1787, p.936).

*William Dickie (active 1781, died 1808), 120 Strand, London by 1790-1800. Stationer, pocketbook maker and bookseller.

It is said that most of J.M.W. Turner's sketchbooks prior to 1807 were made up by William Dickie (Bower 1990 p.96; see also Peter Bower, 'Cornelius Varley's Use of Paper', in Cornelius Varley. The Art of Observation, Lowell Libson, 2005, p.49). However, it should be noted that Dickie was made bankrupt in 1795 and imprisoned for debt in 1804 and subsequently (Maxted 1977, London Gazette 22 September 1795, 4 August 1804), and was reported to have 'been confined nearly five years in the Fleet prison' at the time of his death in 1808 (The Times 26 September 1808). Dickie's prospectus referred to stationary and account books ruled and annotated, wholesale and retail engraving and printing, improved travelling desks, copying machines and portable cases for writing, drawing or dressing, as well as bookbinding (repr. Bower 1990 p.95, giving a date of 1811).

It is not known whether William Dickie is related to an earlier oilman of this name of the parish of St Olave, Southwark, who was made bankrupt in 1742 (London Gazette 18 December 1742).

John Reed Dickinson, see George Bowden

Dimes & Co, Dimes & Elam, Frederick Dimes, see Cowen & Waring

Dod (active 1677-1681), The Queens Head, Cornhill, London. Linen draper.

Supplied canvas to Charles Beale, 1677, 1681 (Talley 1981 p.284); 'Mr Sprignell', to whom Beale referred, was possibly Dod's partner.

James Dodsley, Pall Mall, London from 1759, 59 Pall Mall 1779-1788, 65 Pall Mall 1789-1797. Bookseller and publisher.

James Dodsley (1724-97) succeeded his better-known brother, Robert (1704-64), as owner of the firm of R. & J. Dodsley in 1759. He is not otherwise recorded as an artists' supplier but in November 1767 he was approached by Thomas Gainsborough, writing from Bath, who requested some of the then quite new wove paper which he wished to use for wash drawings, taking advantage of the smooth finish of the paper (see John Hayes (ed.), The Letters of Thomas Gainsborough, Yale, 2001, pp.44-6).

Sources: Maxted 1977; James E. Tierney, 'Dodsley, James (1724-1797)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford, 2004, vol.16, pp.432-3.

*Aitken Dott 1842-1879, Aitken Dott & Son 1880-1984, Aitken Dott Ltd 1984-1988, Aitken Dott plc from 1988. At Lady Lawson St, Edinburgh 1842, 12 South St David St 1844-1847, 16 South St David St 1846-1863, 14-16 South St David St 1863-1874, 26 South Castle St or Castle St 1874-1982, 94 George St 1982-1993, 16 Dundas St, EH3 6HZ from 1993. Carvers and gilders, framemakers, artists' colourmen, from the 1890s also fine art dealers.

Aitken Dott had an account with Roberson, 1852-1908, and is recorded in the Roberson ledgers as taking over the business of John Douglas Smith (qv) at 26 Castle St, 1887. In 1896 Aitken Dott & Son advertised as 'Picture & Print Dealers, Carvers and Gilders, Artists' Colourmen, Architects' & Designers' Warehousemen' (The Year's Art 1896). An agent for Cambridge colours, 1897, made by Madderton & Co Ltd (qv), Aitken Dott advertised in Madderton's literature as 'Artists' Colourmen & Importers of French & German Materials'. For further details, see British picture framemakers | D.

*Nathan Drake (active 1750, died 1787), The White Lyon, James St, Covent Garden, London by 1750-1759 or later, The White Hart, Long Acre by 1763-1777, 52 Long Acre 1774-1790. Artists' colourman.

A leading artists' colourman from the 1750s to the 1780s. Nathan Drake of James St is first documented as a subscriber to John Werge's A Collection of original poems, Stamford, 1750, and he was again recorded in James St the following year (Gentleman's Magazine, vol.21, November 1751, p.527). He was sometimes described as Nathaniel Drake, as for example in 1751 and, when acting as an agent selling prints for Thomas Worlidge, painter in Bath, in 1757 (General Advertiser 27 November 1751, Daily Advertiser 26 April 1757, Public Advertiser 20 December 1757). He was said to have been elected a member of the Society of Arts, 1763 (Whitley 1928, vol.1, p.332), but his nomination, as Mr Nathan Drake, Colourman, was declined on 5 April 1763 (Royal Society of Arts, Manuscript Subscription Book, 1754-63, examined by Suzanna Walker). He was listed in Mortimer's Universal Director, 1763, as Nathaniel Drake, Long Acre. By this time he had taken over the business of Robert Keating (qv), who had died in 1758. Nathan Drake died in 1787, leaving a life interest in much of his estate to his wife, Jane, and then to his son Richard, and specifically permitting his wife to carry on his trade as colourman (PCC wills), which she may have done for a few years since directory listings continue until 1790.

Drake is said by Whitley to have been probably related to Nathan Drake (1726-78), the York painter (Whitley 1928, vol.1, p.332); however his reference to the York painter giving Drake's Long Acre premises as his contact address in the 1771 Society of Artists catalogue does not tally with the copy of this catalogue in the National Portrait Gallery library. Nor can the 'Mr Drake', who exhibited at the Free Society in 1783, using Vine St as his address, be linked with the artists' colourman.

Two trade cards in the name of Nathan Drake are known, the earlier perhaps dating to the 1750s, advertising from the White Lion, James St, near Long Acre, 'Sells all sorts of Colours, Wholesale/ & Retail, As Indico's, Smalts, Water/ Colours in Shells, & Liquids, Crayons/ fine Prim'd Cloths' (Heal coll. 89.52); the later perhaps dating to the 1760s or 1770s, advertising his business as 'Successor to/ Mr Robert Keating/ At the WHITE HART in LONG-ACRE;/ London./ Sells all sorts of fine colours & oils for painting/ Prym'd Cloths, Pencils fine Tools and Palletts;/ Water Colours prepared in the neatest manner/ Also Makes all sorts of Crayons in the best/ approved methods/ NB: Keatings fine Varnish formerly Calld/ Coopers Picture Varnish' (Banks coll. 89.8; Heal coll. 89.51; Johnson Collection).

Drake received payments from Allan Ramsay on 24 April 1752 (£20), 17 March 1762 (£10), 11 April 1763 (£23), 6 April, 5 July and 1 Sept 1764 (£10 on each occasion), and 10 August 1765 (£16) (Ramsay bank account). As Nathaniel Drake, he submitted an account to James Grant of Grant for work done in 1765-6 (National Archives of Scotland, GD248/249/2). He advertised varnish on 28 May 1768 (Whitley papers vol.3 p.281, source unspecified). He was mentioned by Michael Tyson in November 1771, writing to Richard Gough the antiquary to request him to call on Drake's in Long Acre to purchase ivories and brushes for miniatures, also requesting agates for grinding colours (John Nichols, Literary Anecdotes of the Eighteenth Century, 1814, vol.8, pp.571-4). He promised to supply canvas on stretched frames for James Barry at the Society of Arts for £100 in March 1777 (Whitley 1928, vol.1, p.330).

*James Driver 1817-1818, Charles B. Driver 1816-1831 or later, Driver & Shaw 1824-1826. At 300 Strand, London 1816-1824, 117 Bishopsgate St 1824-1830, 19 Cornhill from 1831. Stationers, booksellers, colour manufacturers.

Charles Burrell Driver (1788-1852), the eldest of three known children of Abraham Purshore Driver (IGI, BMD), took over the premises at 300 Strand of Reeves & Inwood (qv), first being listed in 1816 (Post Office directory). James Driver was listed in 1817 and 1818 (Johnstone's directory). Subsequently the short-lived partnership, Driver & Shaw advertised as successors to Reeves & Inwood, and as 'Manufacturers of the Improved Superfine Colours', late of 300 Strand, in their trade card, which can be dated to c.1824-6 (Johnson Collection). Driver & Shaw published a 21-page catalogue of improved superfine colours and drawing materials in 1824 (Yale Center for British Art, see Ken Spelman Rare Books, York, cat. 59, 2006, item 18; this example of the catalogue has an additional wrapper with the address of John Wolstenholme, bookseller, York). The partnership between Charles Burrell Driver and Edmund Shaw, watercolour manufacturers and stationers, was dissolved on 31 December 1826 (London Gazette 1 May 1827). Charles Burrell Driver had an account with Roberson, 1828-31 (Woodcock 1997). He was father of Robert Collier Driver, a leading member of a family of surveyors and auctioneers, responsible for many prominent London property sales.

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