British picture framemakers, 1750-1950

A selective directory, to be revised and expanded annually. 1st edition November 2007. Contributions are welcome, to Jacob Simon at jsimon@npg.org.uk. Cross-references to other makers are indicated by adding '(qv)' after the relevant name. Bibliography and resources.

Robert Ladbrooke, St Andrew's, Norwich until 1829, White Lion St 1829-1839 or later, College St, Bury St Edmunds 1841, 11 White Lion St, Norwich by 1845-1851 or later. Carver and gilder, picture cleaner, drawing master.

Robert Ladbrooke (1798-1852) was one of four sons of the artist of the same name, Robert Ladbrooke (1769-1842), the other three also becoming artists, including Henry (1800-69) and John Berney (1803-79). He advertised his removal from his residence in St Andrew's, Norwich, to White Lion St on 31 January 1829 (Stabler 2006 p.169, quoting the Norwich Mercury). In the 1841 census he was listed in Bury St Edmunds and in 1851 in Norwich as a carver and gilder, age 51, with a son, Robert, age 17, also a carver and gilder. In his will, dated 24 March 1851 and proved 9 September 1852, Robert Ladbrooke junr, carver and gilder, describes himself as formerly of Bury St Edmunds, now of White Lion St, and refers to his wife Elizabeth and leaves his stock-in-trade and tools to his son, also Robert Ladbrooke.

Ladbrooke's trade label from White Lion St, with text set in a heavy swept frame with prominent corners, describes him as 'Carver, Gilder, Picture, and Lookingglass, Frame Maker' (National Portrait Gallery, Thomas Lawrence's Sarah Trimmer, an early reframing). Another trade label, but as R. Ladbrooke junr, within a classical Greek Key surround, describes him (or his son) as 'Carver, Gilder, Picture Frame Maker', advertising 'Frames regilt. Old Paintings repaired, Cleaned and Varnished' (repr. P.K. Scott, A Romantic Look at Norwich School Landscapes, 1998, p.95).

Sources: John Stabler, Norfolk Furniture Makers 1700-1840, Regional Furniture Society, 2006.

Christian Lamm 1869, 1878-1899, C. Lamm & Son 1900-1916. At 4 West Hill, Wandsworth, London SW18 1869, 36 Earls Court Road, Kensington 1878-1908, 50 Earls Court Road 1909-1916. Fine art carvers, gilders, picture and looking glass framemakers.

The Lamm family was active in picture framing over three generations: Christian John Lamm senior (b.1840/1) operating from Earls Court Road, Christian John Lamm junior (b.1866) initially in West Kensington and then in Wandsworth (the West Kensington business continued in other hands), and Arthur John Lamm (b.1902) who continued in Wandsworth.

Christian John Lamm, born Hamburg in 1840/1, moved to London by 1861 when he was listed in Southwark as a journeyman baker, age 20. He married at Westminster in 1864 and was recorded in the 1869 directory as a carver and gilder at 4 West Hill, Wandsworth. He appears in the 1881 census as a builder (gilder?) at 36 Earls Court Road, Kensington, with a 14-year-old son, also Christian. The premises at 4 West Hill were retained by the Lamm family, whether for residential or business use, even after setting up business in Kensington. Another business, Hebden & Sons (qv), carvers and gilders etc, was briefly in occupation at 4 West Hill, 1908-10. Another member of the family, George Lamm (b.1870), born in Kensington, was recorded in the 1901 census as a picture framemaker, age 30, living on the business premises at 36 Earls Court Road.

The business's late 19th-century trade card from 36 Earls Court Road depicts the exterior of the premises as the Kensington Fine Art Repository, established in 1859, describing the business as 'Carver, Gilder and Importer of Picture Frames, Mouldings &c', also advertising, 'Oil Paintings, Engravings, Oleographs &c. The Largest Stock in West London. Re-gilding in all its branches. The trade supplied' (Guildhall Library).

G.F. Watts used a framemaker by the name of Lamm who is mentioned in his correspondence in 1899 and 1903 (Simon 1996 p.173, n.2). Harold Speed used Lamm to make some of his distinctive reeded oak Whistler frames. His John Burns, 1907 (National Portrait Gallery) has the label of C. Lamm & Son, while another of his portraits in this frame style has the label of the Rowley Gallery (qv).

Barford & Lamm 1901-1904, Christian John Lamm 1905-1919, Lamm & Co 1920-1925, at 21 Blythe Road, West Kensington W 1901-1925, as carvers and gilders. Christian John Lamm 1916-1947, Arthur John Lamm 1948-1966, at 4 West Hill, Wandsworth 1916-1966, as picture framemakers.

Frederick Powell Barford (b.1871) was trading from 21 Blythe Road as early as 1899. In the 1901 census, he was living in Fulham, a picture framemaker, age 29. He went into partnership with Christian John Lamm's son, also Christian John Lamm (b.1866). Lamm junior was born in Kensington in 1866, married in 1888 and was listed in the 1891 census as a carver and gilder and framemaker, living in Kensington with his wife, and a six-month old, Christian G. Lamm, and in 1901 as a picture framemaker living in Fulham. It would seem that from 1919 Christian John Lamm junior relocated his business to Wandsworth, leaving another member of the family, perhaps his son, Frederick Ferdinand Lamm (b.1894), in partnership in West Kensington. The partners in Lamm & Co from 1920 changed from F.F. Lemon (sic) & J. Tebby in 1920, to F.F. Lamm in 1921 and 1922 and to F.F. Lamm & B.J. or H.J. Griggs in 1924 and 1925.

Turning to the third-generation of the Lamm family, Christian George Lamm (1890-1914) was born in Kensington or Fulham in 1890, but died young. It was Arthur John Lamm (b.1902), presumably his brother, born in Fulham, who eventually carried on the business in Wandsworth.

James Lanham 1869-1907, James Lanham Ltd from 1907. At High St, St Ives, Cornwall; also at Copper Works, Newlyn, Cornwall 1934. Artists' colourmen, picture framemakers etc.

James Lanham advertised extensively in The Year's Art, featuring 'Japanese Frames' in 1890, and 'Japanese Art Frames Design Simple and Effective' in 1892. In 1895 he advertised 'Studio or Trial Frames, Finished in Deep or Pale Gilt, with Bead and Bevel, 4 1/2 to 7 ins wide', as well as Japanese Frames and Newlyn Art Frames, 'supplied in Natural Colour, intended for the Artists' own decoration, or can be Bronzed Pale or Deep Gold'. Subsequently, he advertised Japanese frames made of 'Japanese Gold Canvas' (1897), and in 'rich, dull gold canvas' (1904). For fuller details of this business, see British artists' suppliers.

Richard Lawrence, Wardour St, Soho, London 1763. Carver.

Richard Lawrence (1732-1798?) was a carver in both stone and wood, rather than a picture framemaker as such. He was perhaps the son of the Richard Lawrence, active 1732-7, who did work for the Duke of Montrose's house in Norfolk and the Queen's Library at St James's Palace (DEFM). He was apprenticed to Sefferin Alken (qv) in 1746, with whom he was apparently in partnership as Alken & Lawrence in 1763. His extensive activity for the Crown at Windsor, Greenwich Hospital and Somerset House and for the owners of various town and country houses has been described elsewhere (see Sources below). He subscribed to George Richardson's A Treatise on the Five Orders of Architecture in 1787 (Biography database). He would appear to be the Richard Lawrence of Northumberland St, St Marylebone, who died on 14 December 1798 and who left his drawing instruments and his books of ornament and figures to his son. He knew the framemaker, William Saunders (qv), well enough for Saunders to be called to attest to his handwriting before his unwitnessed will could be proved following his death.

In 1789, Lawrence supplied the frame for Benjamin West's altarpiece painting in the Royal Naval College Chapel at Greenwich at the remarkable figure of 50s a foot (Simon 1996 p.147). He produced pier glass frames to the design of John Yenn for Windsor Castle, c.1794-6.

Sources: Geoffrey Beard, Craftsmen and Interior Decoration in England 1660-1820, Edinburgh, 1981, p.268; Gunnis 1968; DEFM; Hugh Roberts, 'A Neoclassical Episode at Windsor', Furniture History, vol.33, 1997, pp.177-87 (a further design, sent by Lawrence to Yenn, apparently for the top of one of the frames, dated 27 January 1796, is in the National Portrait Gallery records, 17-F-4).

Benjamin Louis Lecand 1809-1848, Samuel Lecand 1849-1882. At 38 Great Prescot St, Goodman's Fields, London 1809-1831, 37 Drury Lane 1833, 246 Tottenham Court Road 1834-1877, 176 Tottenham Court Road 1878-1882. Carvers and gilders, looking glass and picture framemakers.

Benjamin Louis Lecand or Le Cand (1783-1863), the son of Daniel Le Cand and Sara Izard, was baptised at the Artillery, the French Huguenot church in Spitalfields. He married firstly Elizabeth Vincent in 1807, and secondly Elizabeth Genotin in 1815, with eleven children from the two marriages between 1808 and 1824. He was made bankrupt in 1820 (The Times 10 April 1820, London Gazette 20 April 1822). From 38 Great Prescott St, he took out insurance with the Sun Fire Office as a carver, gilder, stationer and looking glass manufacturer and paperhanger, 29 June 1820, 24 September 1821 and 24 October 1821 (when described as 'in trust', perhaps as a consequence of his bankruptcy), and again in 1824 and 1826. He subsequently moved to 246 Tottenham Court Road, formerly the premises of Thomas Jackson (qv).

Benjamin Louis Lecand advertised on his trade card from 38 Great Prescot St as 'Carver, Gilder, Paper Hanger, Looking Glass and Picture Frame Manufacturer', offering 'All sort of Elegant and Ornamental Convex Glasses, &c., in the present Fashion & on the most reasonable terms. Old Frames re-gilt and Paintings carefully cleaned and varnished. Stationery, Book-Binding &c.' (Geoffrey Wills, English Looking-glasses, 1965, p.154). Some of his convex mirrors in the Regency style can be found in Norwegian collections, suggesting an export business (DEFM).

His son by his second marriage, Samuel Lecand (1818-1911) was trading independently in 1844 as an ornamental carver at 63 George St, Hampstead Road, before taking over the premises at 246 Tottenham Court Road in 1849. He was listed in the 1851 census at this address as a master carver and gilder, age 31, employing eight men, with an apprentice George Le Blond, age 18. In 1852 he appears in the London directory as a carver, gilder, plateglass factor and ornamental glass framemaker to the trade, and in 1862 as a carver and gilder, looking glass and picture frame manufacturer. In the 1881 census he appears as a carver and gilder, employing two men and an apprentice. He was named in some trade directories as Samuel Le Cand, and it was by this name that his death was recorded in the Exeter registration district in 1911.

Sources: Guildhall Library: Records of Sun Fire Office, vols 484, 486, 487, 497, 506.

Samuel Leightonhouse, see William Linnell

John Lepard, see James Criswick

John Le Sage. A candidate for a proposed supplement to this Directory, to include framemakers active before 1750. Contact Jacob Simon at jsimon@npg.org.uk.

James Liddle 1778-1816, Liddle Kay & Co 1816-1823. At Candlemaker Row, Edinburgh 1778, Teviot Row (now Teviot Place) 1784-1811, 4 Teviot Row 1811-1816, 3 Teviot Row 1816-1823. Carvers and gilders, cabinet makers.

James Liddle's interest as a framemaker is for his work for Henry Raeburn, apparently as his earliest framemaker. He appears in Edinburgh directories from 1778 as Liddle or Liddel, carver and gilder. In 1784 he was described as 'curious in carving and gilding'. He took various apprentices, including Thomas Noble (qv) before 1809 (Houliston 1999 p.63).

James Liddle (active 1778, died 1823) was much more than a picture framemaker. He appears to have been one of the most important furniture makers working in Edinburgh in Raeburn's lifetime. He made glass frames for Arniston in 1788 (Bamford 1983 p.80), and supplied a wide range of furniture and furnishings to Charles Watson of Saughton, Midlothian, 1785-99 (Orkney Archives, formerly Scottish Record Office, GD150/3321/52 & 54, 3327, 3338, 3343). He also worked extensively for William Forbes of Calendar from at least 1788 to 1806 so that his connection with the framing of Raeburn's portrait of Forbes in 1798 is as likely to be explained by his links to the sitter as the artist (National Archives of Scotland, GD171/631/13, 171/34/13, etc). Other patrons included Robert Dundas from 1788 to 1799, the Duke of Argyll in 1792 (Bamford 1983 p.80) and Robert Hay in 1795-6. Liddle billed the Dalkeith Household for pictures by Messrs Lewis and Naismith in 1792 (National Archives of Scotland, GD224/351/37, Dalkeith Household Accounts).

Liddle framed Raeburn's portraits from about 1789 until 1798, while the artist was working from his first studio in George St. Liddle was thus just over a mile away from Raeburn's studio via the North Bridge, the main link for traffic between the Old Town and the New. Liddle was paid £3.3s in 1789 for a rich burnished gold frame for a work by Raeburn painted for Gilbert Innes. He was paid £6.6s in 1790 by John Anderson for two frames for paintings by Raeburn (Thomson 1997 p.202). He was described as Mr Liddell the Frame Maker by Raeburn in 1792 and again in 1793 (Simon 1996 p.86; James Greig, Sir Henry Raeburn, R.A., 1911, p.xxxiv).

Liddle's name disappears from the Edinburgh directories in 1816 to be replaced by that of Liddle Kay & Co, cabinet makers, a business which continued until 1823. James Liddle, late carver and gilder, Teviot Row, died on 14 August 1823 (The Scotsman 20 August 1823).

Sources: Houliston 1999 pp.62-3, 74; information from Edinburgh trade directories from David Mackie; National Archives of Scotland, GD113/5/303/29, papers of Innes family of Stow, Peeblesshire.

James Linnell, 14 Craven Buildings, London by 1790-1794 or later, Streatham St, Bloomsbury by 1799, 2 Streatham St 1802-1829, 34 Hart St, Bloomsbury Square 1829-1836. Carver and gilder, picture and looking glass framemaker, printseller.

James Linnell (1759-1836) is said to have been apprenticed to Southerby, carver and gilder, Strand (Alfred T. Story, The Life of John Linnell, 1892), presumably John Sotheby (qv) at 13 Strand. Linnell was apparently in partnership with a man by the name of Durand but the business was made bankrupt 1795-6 (Linnell 1994 p.3). A few years later he was trading on his own account from 2 Streatham St, where he was mentioned in trade directories from time to time, either as a carver and gilder or a picture framemaker. He published several prints from this address in 1806 and 1807, including William Ward's mezzotint of Julius Caesar Ibbetson's Sailors Carousing, 1807. He was made bankrupt in 1812 (London Gazette 13 June 1812).

Linnell's daughter, Mary Susannah (1786-1865), married Edward Chance and their son, James Henry Chance (qv), became a framemaker. Linnell's son, John Linnell (1792-1882), the artist, was apprenticed to him at the age of 14 in 1806 to learn the trade of carver and gilder, an apparently flexible arrangement made at a time when the son was already a student at the Royal Academy.

By 1829 James Linnell was trading from 34 Hart St, Bloomsbury, where he took out insurance with the Sun Fire Office as a carver, gilder and picture framemaker on 21 July 1829 and 21 December 1832 (Guildhall Library: Records of Sun Fire Office, vols 522, 538). His trade card from 34 Hart St as a carver and gilder additionally offered a service to clean, line and restore pictures (Victoria and Albert Museum, Print Room, E3863-1911).

In his will dated 4 June 1836, James Linnell made bequests to his son, the artist, John Linnell, his daughter, Elizabeth Ann Barling, and also to his granddaughter, Elizabeth Jane Chance, and his grandson, James Henry Chance. This grandson was the subject of somewhat unusual clauses in the will, whereby James Linnell bequeathed Chance all his working tools, together with £1.4s a week for 13 weeks, provided he gives all proper assistance to Linnell's executors in preparing for, and in the sale of, his stock-in-trade. James Linnell's household furniture, pictures, frames and effects, including picture by various English artists, were sold on his premises at 34 Hart St in 1837 (The Times 29 May 1837).

James Linnell made various frames for his son, John, including for pictures painted in Newbury in 1815 and for a portrait of the Torrens Family in 1821. He is said to have made frames for William Collins, father of one of his son's fellow students at the Royal Academy.

William Blake's watercolour and gouache, The Sea of Time and Space, c.1820 (National Trust, Arlington Court, Devon) has a flat gilt frame with handwritten label, 'James Linnell framer/ 3 Streatham Street Bloomsbury/ One Door from Charlotte Street.' Another work with a handwritten label from Streatham St is a carved and gilt looking glass frame at 10 Downing St, London (Geoffrey Wills, English Looking-glasses, 1965, p.154).

It is possible that this is not the only work by William Blake that was framed or prepared by James Linnell, who notes in his account book the order of 'Mr Varley' on 18 January 1826 for '21 flatts for Mr Blakes Prints' (G.E. Bentley, Blake Records, 2nd ed., Yale University Press, 2004, p.775; Bentley gives a footnote, 'Perhaps "flatts" should be "Matts" ', and suggests that Blakes Prints were probably unfinished proofs for Job). A somewhat ambiguous memorandum of J. Varley and C. Varley of 8 March 1830 refers to leaving with 'Mr Linnell, 34 Hart St, Bloomsbury, 10 prints of Job, framed & Glazed by Order of my father', and three days later there is a further delivery of this type (G.E. Bentley, Blake Records, 2nd edition, Yale University Press, 2004, p.524).

James Linnell's incomplete order book, with some sketches, 1809-36, and related documents, are in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge (MS 246-2001 etc).

Sources: Angus Whitehead, 'The Arlington Court Picture: A surviving example of William Blake's framing practice', The British Art Journal, vol.8, no.1, 2007, pp.30-3.

John Linnell. A candidate for a proposed supplement to this Directory. Contact Jacob Simon at jsimon@npg.org.uk.

William Linnell, Long Acre, London 1729-1749, 8 Long Acre 1750-1754, 28 Berkeley Square 1754-1763. Carver and gilder, cabinet maker, upholsterer.

A leading carver and cabinet maker, William Linnell (c.1703-1763) is discussed at length by Helena Hayward and Pat Kirkham, William and John Linnell: Eighteenth Century London Furniture Makers, 1980. He set up his own business in about 1730 and produced a very wide range of furniture for leading patrons.

Linnell's picture frames formed only a small part of his business. These frames could be rich and elaborate. For example, according to his idiosyncratically spelt bill, in 1739 he supplied Richard Hoare of Maze Hill with what were presumably frames in the Palladian or Kent style: 'a pair of half length picture frames very neatly carved, with a Venus head and feathers at top and foliage on each side, foliage at bottom, and a double French shell in the middle, drops of old fruit and flowers all down the sides pelmets. Lapping over the mouldings top, bottom and sides, all the mouldings carved and key fret in the sandings' for £13.2s; he later supplied his patron, by now Sir Richard Hoare of Barn Elms, with other picture frames including a 'large swept picture frame' for £5.10s in 1753 (spelling modernised, see Hayward & Kirkham, pp.142-4, for original wording).

On occasion Linnell worked under the supervision of an architect or to specific designs. He charged William Drake in 1749 for '6 half-length picture frames, compleat by drawing' (Simon 1996 p.138). In 1749 he was appointed as the Duke of Bedford's carver at Woburn Abbey, under the architect, Henry Flitcroft; in this capacity he produced in 1752 'a large picture frame, very neat by drawing, with an eagle at the top, festoons down the sides and mozaicks at the bottom, all very richly ornamented, the same in gilt burnished gold, all compleat' for £25.18s, expensive for a single picture frame, and part of a larger commission for carving work worth more than £350 (Simon 1996 pp.126, 129).

At the Foundling Hospital, 'Linnell' offered to donate a 'Curious Carved Frame' for a picture by Peter Monamy in December 1747, but the hospital's governors were not looking for such an elaborate frame. He is identifiable with the father, William, rather than the son, John, who is not known to have been active as a carver at this date. In 1750, Linnell provided a frame for Andrea Casali's Adoration of the Magi altarpiece (Foundling Museum), which was to be framed 'in such a manner' as Theodore Jacobsen, the Hospital's architect, directed. The result is a large-scale egg-and-anchor moulding of deep section with corner leaves and an inner twisted rope sight edge, clearly reflecting Jacobsen's taste. The frame was apparently gilded by Samuel Leightonhouse who on 20 March 1751 'offered a Benefaction of Gilding'.

Sources: DEFM (entry by Helena Hayward); Helena Hayward, 'The Drawings of John Linnell in the V & A Museum', Furniture History, vol.5, 1969; Pat Kirkham, William and John Linnell: Eighteenth Century London Furniture Makers, 1980.

T.R. Longley, 4 Oxford St, London 1845. Picture framemaker.

Longley advertised his large and well-assorted stock of picture and other frames, cornices etc, of superior quality and the newest designs, double gilt with the best leaf gold, including a 'Sir Thomas Lawrence' frame at £1.6s, size 30 x 25 inch (The Art-Union April 1845 p.115). He has not otherwise been traced.

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