William WARD [27229]

  General Notes:

British artists' suppliers, 1650-1950
William Ward, 66 Chandos St, Covent Garden 1773-1785, 56 (or 65) Chandos St 1786-1788. Artists' colourman.
William Ward, son of Joseph Ward, fishmonger of St James Westminster, was apprenticed in 1764 to Mr Fowler, that is, Abraham Fowler (d.1769), oil and colourman in Piccadilly, as he advertised in 1773 when he took over the business of John Ford (qv) as artists' colourman in Chandos St (Morning Chronicle and London Advertiser 28 May 1773). He purchased from Ford's trustees his house and stock-in-trade, and advertised that he had laid in 'a large assortment of fine colours'. He produced a trade card, printed in green, which establishes that he supplied primed canvas, among other goods: 'WILLM: WARD/ (Successor to Mr: Ford) No: 66 Chandos Street, Covent Garden. LONDON Makes & Sells all Sorts of primed Cloths, & fine Colours, in Oil, and in Water, Likewise Tools, Fitches, Pencils, Box, Ebony, Cedar & Deal Sticks, Palett Boards, Knives, Chalks, Port- Crayons, Mahogany Colour Boxes, Easels &c. All sorts of House Colours & Oils, Wholesale Retail and for Exportation, at the Lowest Prices, & Curious Poppy Oil.NB Pictures Lin'd in the Neatest Manner' (Heal coll. 89.169, see Ayres 1985 p.82). Another attractive trade card shows a standing female figure holding an artist's palette, with cherub, 'WARD, COLOURMAN, No. 66 Chandos Street, Covent Garden' (Banks coll. 89.49; Heal coll. 89.170). His bill head and yet another trade card refer to his appointment to the Prince of Wales (Heal coll. 89.167 and 89.168).
William Ward was paid 12s for colours etc supplied to the Duke of Richmond for Goodwood in 1780 (West Sussex Record Office, Goodwood MS 240 p.134). He may be the 'Ward' used by the artist and miniature painter, Richard Crosse', for paints and canvas, 1782-6 (see Crosse's account book, V&A National Art Library, MSL/1929/2188). He supplied the canvas for a copy after Rosa da Tivoli'sGoats and Birds of Prey(Houghton Hall, Norfolk, conserved by the Hamilton Kerr Institute, 1997); the canvas is stamped: WILL^MWARD,/ 65, Chandos Street/ Raw cloath at 2 8 [or 2 3], and its stretcher impressed: WW (information from Joyce Townsend.

It is possible to clarify that Ward is not to be identified with the William Ward, oilman, of the Tylers' and Bricklayers' Company, who took as apprentices William Lumley in 1762, John Dare in 1767, John Blatch in 1772, and William Rondeau and John Smith in 1773 (Webb 1996 pp.9, 21, 50, 67, 72), and who was trading as an oilman in Fleet St by 1761, taking out an insurance policy in 1777 from 112 Fleet St (Sun Fire Office policy registers), and continuing at this address until 1779.

It is interesting to note Williams apprenticeship to Abraham Fowler was into the Grocers Guild, perhaps the Grocers Guild held the monoply on the import of the of colour pigments ?