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

*Pache & Davis 1758-1763, Lewis Pache & Co 1765-1767. At Hayes's Court, Soho, London. Merchants.

Pache & Davis advertised in 1758, 'The noted Swiss Crayons called Pastels Assortie, the Box being a compleat Assortment of Shades and Colours' (Public Advertiser 20 June 1758), later describing them as made by Bernard Stoupan and recommended by 'that famous Painter Liotard' (Public Advertiser 30 April 1760). These crayons, made by Stoupan, were previously advertised by W. Darres, printseller, at the late De Braque's warehouse, Coventry St, near Haymarket (Public Advertiser 5 January 1756).

In 1766 John James Bonhote (qv) advertised as successor to Mr Pache, subsequently stating that his pencils were now made by Charles Pache (qv). In 1783 John David Galliard (qv) advertised his crayons as those for which the Society for the Encouragement of Arts granted a bounty to Pache and Galliard.

In his will, Lewis Pache, merchant of Lawrence Poultney Lane in the City of London, dated June 1769 and proved on 11 February 1773, made bequests to his nephew, Charles Henry Pache, some of his brother, Jacob Samuel Pache, and to various other relatives (PCC wills).

**Charles Pache, 2 Oxendon St, near Coventry St, London 1774. Pastel maker.

In 1773, John James Bonhote (qv) advertised that his pastels, or Swiss crayons, were now made by Charles Pache in London, formerly a partner with Bernard Stoupan at Lausanne, noting that Pache had obtained a premium from the Society of Arts and Sciences (London Evening Post 8 April 1773).
The following year Pache advertised that he had set up in business on his own at 2 Oxendon St, near Coventry St, advertising that he had received a Bounty from the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce, for establishing a manufacture of crayons in England, and also advertising watercolours (London Evening Post 24 May 1774).

He is presumably the Charles Pache who married Marie Louise Doutremer at St James, Westminster on 9 December 1775 (IGI). His relationship to Lewis Pache (see above) has yet to be established.

Charles G. Page, see Winsor & Newton

*Hugh Paton 1827-1867, Hugh Paton & Sons 1869-1892. At 21 Horse Wynd, Cowgate, Edinburgh 1827-1829, Horse Wynd, College St 1829-1839, 72 Adam Square 1840-1853, 10 Princes St 1854-1861, 40 Princes St 1857, 9 Princes St 1862-1867, 115 Princes St 1868-1884, 122 Princes St 1884-1892, 5 St James Square from 1893. Printing office and workshop at other addresses 1854-1892. Stationer, printer, printseller, carver and gilder.

Hugh Paton (1806-63) took a full-page colour advertisement in Gray's 1833 Edinburgh directory, giving his address as 25-27 Head of Horse Wynd, and featuring among other products 'the very best prepared Canvass, Pannels, & oil Colours in bladders, the Cheapest in Scotland'. A labelled canvas has been recorded, 1864.

Paton held appointments to the Duchess of Kent and the future Queen Victoria from 1836, later calling his premises the Royal Repository of Fine Arts. The business had an account with Roberson, 1850-81 (Woodcock 1997), trading as Hugh Paton, Hugh Paton & Sons and Hugh Paton & Son, from 10, 9 and 115 Princes St. Hugh Paton was recorded in the 1861 census living at 35 Tower St, Duddingston, Edinburgh, as a printer, carver and gilder, employing 33 men, with three of his nine children apparently working in the business. He died in November 1863. His will is recorded in 1864 (Scottish Documents).

Hugh Paton's widow, Jane Paton, advertised, following the death of her husband, that as from 1 January 1869 she was retiring from the business which would in future be carried on by her two sons, Chalmers Izett Paton and James Paton, as Hugh Paton & Sons (Edinburgh Gazette 30 March 1869).

Sources: Scottish Book Trades Index (for the above addresses, and for advertisements by Paton).

Thomas Pavitt 1878-1885, Thomas Pavitt & Sons 1886-1924. At 70 Southampton Row, London WC 1878-1903, 69 Southampton Row 1904-1924. Supplier of decorators' and gilders' materials, also artists' materials.

In 1909 Pavitt was marketing the full range of Bourgeois Ainé, Paris, using Bourgeois's catalogue but under the Pavitt imprint on the cover and title page (Catalogue of Artists' Colours and Materials, 208pp).

*Charles Pearson, 57 St John's Wood High St, London 1860-1869, renumbered 1869/70, 77 St John's Wood High St 1870-1885, 17 Queens Terrace 1886-1894. Variously listed as carver and gilder, house decorator and interior decorator.

In the 1861 census, Charles Pearson (1813-1880?) was listed at 57 St John's Wood High St as a gilder and decorator, age 47, born Doncaster, with wife Maria and two young children. He may be the individual who died age 67 in the Marylebone district in 1880. His undated mark has been recorded, describing him as an artists' colourman.

**Pether & Co, 35 Tavistock St, Covent Garden, London 1816-1820. Black lead and chalk pencil makers.

The landscape painter, Abraham Pether (1756-1812), was known for his mechanical inventions and for constructing his own instruments, including apparently a type of pencil. He died leaving a destitute widow, Elizabeth, and nine children. By 1816 she was in business with Thomas Thornton as Pether & Co, advertising black lead and chalk pencils, 'the leads being freed by a chymical process from all impurities, and scratching particles' (The Times 30 July 1816). This advertisement gave James Newman, Ackermann and Smith, Warner & Co as stockists, among others, while another advertisement, later that year, included an even more extensive list of retailers (The Times 6 November 1816).

Three years later on 23 March 1819, Mrs Pether informed the Royal Academician, Joseph Farington, that her partner in the black lead pencil concern had resolved to dissolve the partnership, and that she was looking for a new partner to invest in the business (Farington vol.15, pp.5342-3). The dissolution of her partnership with Thomas Thornton was announced shortly thereafter (London Gazette 11 May 1819).

Farington was instrumental in obtaining a paper signed by Benjamin West, President of the Royal Academy, commending her pencils, which he gave her on 20 July 1819, with the recommendation that she should seek further signatures (Farington vol.15, p.5390). Three days later, he noted in his diary that Mrs Pether called on him to show him a printed paper, published by her late partner, Thomas Thornton, offering pencils 'made agreeable to the late Mrs. Pether's invention', and that he was under the patronage of the members of the Royal Academy, a claim which brought a sharp rebuttal from some academicians. This printed paper has not been traced, unless it can be identified with the trade card of Pether & Co, advertising 'Improved Black-Lead & Chalk Pencils (Invented by the late A. Pether, esq. F.S.A'), as being under the exclusive patronage and recommendation of the President and members of the Royal Academy. Pether & Co's card advertised the availability of lead pencils from deep black (BB) to extremely hard (HHH), and of black chalk from soft (SS) to hard (H).

Phine (or Phinner), Fleet Bridge, London 1677. Colourman.

Phine supplied colours and brushes to Charles Beale (qv), 1677 (Talley 1981 pp.289-90, Bustin 1999 p.44).

*James Pinnick 1850-1856, stationer, Pinnick Brothers 1857, artists' colourmen, carvers and gilders, picture framemakers. At 50 High St, Camden Town, London 1850-1857.

James Pinnick (c.1811-1858?) was listed at 50 High St, Camden Town, in the 1851 census as a stationer and bookseller, age 40, with wife Elizabeth, age 40, and two sons, James and Charles, ages 17 and 16, both hosiery clerks. These two sons traded briefly as Pinnick Brothers until announcing the dissolution of their partnership as from 31 December 1857 (London Gazette 5 January 1858). The father is probably the man of this name whose death was recorded in 1858 (BMD). The adjoining property to his was occupied by his wife, trading as a baby linen warehouse in 1856. Nearby the Dalziel printing works, the Camden Press, opened at 53 High St in 1857. A canvas with the Pinnick Brothers mark has been recorded; an example is Thomas Whittle's Landscape with Horses and Cart, 1857 (Lady Lever Art Gallery, Port Sunlight, see Morris 1994).

Pitet Ainé & Cie, Paris, see G.H. Saunders; the business held an account with Roberson, 1850-3, 1863 (Woodcock 1997)

*Polak and Co 1880-1931. At Bedford Passage, Charlotte St, Fitzroy Square, London 1880-1881, 65 Charlotte St 1882-1889, 63 Wardour St 1890-1905, 7 Charles St 1896, 14 Bateman St, Soho Square 1906-1931. Carvers and gilders, later art dealers.

See British picture framemakers | P. The business advertised 'The Patent Compressed Art Panels, (The "J.M. MacIntosh.") Never Warp. Never Crack. The Cheapest and Best Panel in the Market' (The Year's Art 1899, 1900). These wood pulp boards had been patented in 1893 and were later sold by Newman (Alexander W. Katlan, 'Early wood-fiber panels: masonite, hardboard, and lower-density boards', Journal of the American Institute for Conservation, vol.33, no.3, pp.301-6).

Arthur Pond, Covent Garden Piazza, London 1727-1735, Great Queen St from 1735. Portrait painter, dealer and printseller.

Arthur Pond (1701-58) supplied colours and other materials to John Smibert and his nephew John Moffatt for sale in America, 1743-57 (Lippincott 1983 p.92; Katlan 1987 pp.5-6; Richard H. Saunders, John Smibert: Colonial America's first portrait painter, 1995, pp.100, 257-61).

Portrait: For Arthur Pond's self-portrait etching, 1739 (example in National Portrait Gallery), see www.npg.org.uk/live/search/portrait.asp?search=ss&sText=arthur+pond&LinkID=mp07966&rNo=0&role=sit

Richard Jones, Jones and Pontifex, William and Russell Pontifex, Pontifex Sons & Wood, Edward and William Pontifex & Wood, Shoe Lane, London 1780s-1850s. Copper plate makers.
Candidates for the next edition of this Directory. Contact Jacob Simon at jsimon@npg.org.uk.

*James Poole, 163 High Holborn, London by 1785-1801. Artists' colourman.

James Poole was in business at 163 High Holborn by the time he took out an insurance policy on 4 May 1785 (Sun Insurance policy registers). He was listed in most directories as 'Colourman to artists' but in Andrew's Directory, 1789, as 'Colour to Artists and Frime-cloth (sic) Manufacturer'. Poole died in 1801; his death was mentioned by Joseph Farington, July 1801 (Farington vol.4, p.1580). In his will, dated 16 May and proved 15 July 1801, he made bequests to his wife Sarah and his brothers and sisters (PCC wills). He was succeeded in business at 163 High Holborn by William Legg (qv) and then by Thomas Brown (qv).

Poole's trade card advertised, 'Superfine/ WATER COLOURS/ Prepared by/ J. POOLE,/ No. 163, High Holborn./ Universally approved/ by the most eminent/ ARTISTS.' (Banks coll. 89.30, added manuscript date 1786, repr. Ayres 1985 p.86; Heal coll. 89.114). He advertised Swiss crayons in 1786 (Whitley 1928, vol.1, p.335). He stocked Swiss crayons made by Mr Hudson of 18 Angel Court, Princess St, Westminster (Morning Herald 24 January 1787).

Poole was mentioned by Joshua Reynolds in a note at the end of his pocketbook for 1789, and he was perhaps the James Poole used by Joseph Wright of Derby; a letter apologising for the non-arrival of unspecified goods, signed by James Poole and dated 27 August 1788, can be found inserted in Wright's account book (National Portrait Gallery). He was used by George Romney (Whitley 1928, vol.1, p.335): one of Romney's accounts with Poole, from 13 October 1794 to 31 December 1797, lists colours, turpentine, linseed oil, poppy oil and stretching frames etc (Romney's Daybook 1794-7, Yale Center for British Art); in a subsequent account, for 1798-9, there was no mention of canvases, apart from two very large cloths, including one without a seam on a straining frame 13 feet by 10 feet (Mary Bustin, 'Mrs Robert Trotter of Bush (1788-9)', Transactions of the Romney Society, vol.2, 1987, pp.9-11).

Other artists known through marked canvases to have used Poole include Lemuel Francis Abbott (Alexander Hood Bridport, 1785, and William Cowper, 1792, both National Portrait Gallery), John Hoppner (Dorothy Jordan, exh.1791, Tate, on loan to National Portrait Gallery), Samuel Jennings (Liberty displaying the Arts and Sciences, with duty stamp 1791, Wintherthur Museum, Delaware, repr. Robert C. Smith, Wintherthur Portfolio, vol.2, 1965, p.103), Gilbert Stuart (George Washington, 1795, National Gallery of Art, Washington, see Ellen Miles, American Paintings of the Eighteenth Century, National Gallery of Art, 1995, p.208), John Opie (Mrs Elliot, with duty stamp 1799, Sudley, Liverpool, repr. Cobbe 1976 p.85, Katlan 1992 p.286) and John Trumbull (Infant Saviour and St. John the Baptist, 1801, Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, Connecticut, see Katlan 1987 p.311; see also Sizer 1950 pp.100-5).

Poole was owed £36 by Arthur William Devis in 1798 and £40 by Thomas Lawrence in 1801 (Farington vol.3, p.998, vol.4, p.1525). Sir George Beaumont ordered colours from Poole, 1798 (Farington vol.3, p.1030) and the 3rd Earl of Egremont also used him, 1799-1800 (Petworth House Archives PHA/7557). Joseph Farington noted that he was unable to obtain Ultramarine from Poole, 1798; he was shown canvases prepared in West's manner at Poole's shop by Daniel, 1803 (Farington vol.3, p.1076, vol.5, p.1958).

There was a James Poole, of the Coachmaker's Company, who took six apprentices from Long Acre between 1749 and 1769, and also a James Poole, colourman at 67 Tower St in 1800, but there is nothing linking either man with the artists' colourman of 163 High Holborn.

Sources: Whitley 1928, vol.1, p.335; Katlan 1992 p.461.

*Powell (active 1734-1763?), St Martin's Lane, London. Colourman.

Powell supplied colours to Arthur Pond (qv) in 1734 (Lippincott 1983 p.92, Lippincott 1991 p.223). He may possibly have been the Mr Powel, Chandois St, who stocked W. Mayer's Prussian Blue in 1730 (Country Journal or The Craftsmen 2 May 1730). He is probably to be identified with Edward Powell, colourman of the parish of St Martin-in-the-Fields who died in 1744 (PCC wills). The business may have been carried on over more than one generation: 'Powel' was listed as a colourman in St Martin's Lane in Mortimer's Universal Director, 1763, and a link has been suggested to the later business of Edward Powell (qv), first recorded in 1774 (Whitley 1928, vol.1, p.332).

B.B. Powell, 21 Old Haymarket, Liverpool, 1861. Artists' colourman and paint manufacturer.

Benjamin Blythe Powell (c.1829-70) was listed in the 1861 census at 21 Old Haymarket, Liverpool, as an oil and colourman, age 32, born in Shropshire, wife Mary Ann, age 40; his death was recorded in 1870 (BMD). His label can be found on Samuel Walters' Merchant Ship Robert L. Lane, label 'From B.B. Powell/ Artists' Colourman/ and Manufacturer of/ Paints, Colours and Varnishes' (New York Historical Society, see Katlan 1987 p.301, repr. Katlan 1992 p.462).

*Edward Powell, St Martin's Lane, London 1774, 96 St Martin's Lane by 1776-1813. Colourman and oilman.

This business is possibly linked to that of an earlier Powell (qv) with premises in St Martin's Lane. Edward Powell was listed as a colourman in 1774 (Westminster poll book, p.43). An example of his billhead as oil and colourman, dated 1791, can be found in the British Museum (Heal coll. 89.117).

By 1814 Powell's premises had been taken over by Edward Allen, sometimes listed as E.P. Allen, colourman, who remained in business until 1838. In 1828 his premises were described as 'one of the oldest colour-shops in London' (John Thomas Smith, Nollekens and his Times, ed. Wilfred Whitten, 1920, vol.2, pp.162-3); the shop front was drawn by several artists, including George Scharf senior in 1829 (British Museum, repr. Peter Jackson, George Scharf's London, 1987, p.32).

*George Priest, 31 Navigation St, Birmingham 1849-1865. Artists' colourman and picture liner.

George Priest (c.1816-1865) was listed in 1849 as artists' repository, dealer in easels, sketching apparatus, palettes, canvases, prepared millboards, oak and mahogany panels and colour boxes, bookseller and stationer (F. White's Directory, 1849), and later more simply as artists' colourman (Dix's General & Commercial Directory of Birmingham, 1858). In the 1851 census, George Priest was listed at 31 Navigation St as an artist, age 35, with wife Hannah, age 33. His death was reported in 1865 (Birmingham Daily Post 25 April 1865). The business had an account with Roberson, 1863-4 and, trading as Mrs Hannah Priest, 1865 (Woodcock 1997). By 1868 Mrs Hannah Priest was trading as a dressmaker from 31 Navigation St.

Priest's canvas mark has been found on Andrew Deakin's Near Shifnal, 1855, stamped, 'G. PRIEST/ PICTURE LINER &c/ 31 Navigation St. Birmm./ ARTISTS JOINER &/ General Dealer in Materials./ Wholesale & Retail' (Christie's South Kensington, 11 March 1999, lot 118). Priest accompanied and assisted David Cox on some of the artist's final field trips to North Wales, 1853-6 (N. Neal Solly, Memoir of the life of David Cox, 1875, p.178).

Ann Jemima Provis (active 1795-1797). Amateur artist.

Ann Jemima Provis and her father Thomas offered a secret medium in 1795 as the basis of a system of painting. According to Joseph Farington, a number of artists tried the process in 1797, believing it would achieve a similar effect to Venetian old master paintings; Rigaud, Smirke, Stothard, Hoppner, Farington himself and Westall purchased information on the process, and Daniell, Cosway and Beechey were also involved (Farington vol.3, p.797 etc). The incredulous reception of what turned out to be a disappointing process was caricatured by James Gillray in November 1797, 'Titianus Redivivus; - or - the seven-wise-men consulting the new Venetian oracle' (example in National Portrait Gallery, see www.npg.org.uk/live/search/person.asp?search=ss&sText=provis&LinkID=mp62303).

Sources: John Gage, 'Magilphs and Mysteries', Apollo, vol.80, July 1964, pp.38-41 (naming her as Mary Anne Provis); Robert C. Alberts, Benjamin West: A Biography, Boston 1978, pp.225-33 (naming her as Mary Ann Jemima Provis).

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