Rediscovering Thomas Kershaw by Mike MacNeil 

As published in the American Painting Contractor Magazine December 1993

In 1993 I ran across a book on marbling by Stewart Spencer. In it were several panels by Thomas Kershaw, an English house painter and decorator from the 1800s considered to be the greatest wood grainer and marbler of all times. The quality of Kershaw’s panels and the brief history given in the book left on me a lasting impression. (see my Thomas Kershaw Gallery)

Some time later, I met William Holgate, an Englishman considered to be one of the best modern practitioners of the craft. I asked Bill if he knew of Kershaw and his work and, not surprisingly, Bill was able to tell me quite a bit about the 19th century decorative painter. In fact, Kershaw’s home in Standish, England was not far from where Bill lived. What’s more, for many years Bill has been inspired by the quality of Kershaw’s work.

Some of the marbling and wood graining techniques used by Kershaw have yet to be duplicated in the nearly 100 years since his death. As hard as he tried, for example, Bill Holgate had been unable to break the code – learn the secrets of Kershaw’s techniques. Since I have spent the better part of my adult life learning and teaching the craft, the more Holgate told me about Kershaw, the more interested I became in learning the master’s secrets. Wood graining and marbling is an art form that dates back to early Egyptian times. Its popularity seems to have come and gone down through the centuries. However, during the 19th century, and in large part due to Kershaw, wood graining and marbling experienced its peak in popularity.

After Kershaw’s death in 1898, the popularity of wood graining and marbling waned, until a resurgence in popularity during this past decade. Since the early 1980s, the historic preservation movement, post-Modernism, and popular tastes in interior design and decoration all played a part in the renewed interest among painters and contractors worldwide. To be able to learn the secrets of the greatest master of the trade would certainly be a benefit to modern practitioners everywhere.

At the time, I had been obsessed with the thought of learning more about the man and his art. So that summer I decided to take a trip to England to find out what I could about the man who was known as the "Prince of Grainers and Marblers."

A different continent and century

After arriving in London, I took a train to Northern England to meet Bill Holgate. Together we visited the Bolton Museum where some of Kershaw’s restored panels were on temporary display. The museum was also showing articles and historical documents that shed considerable light on the life and times of Thomas Kershaw.

Kershaw was born in 1819. At the age of 12, he began working as an apprentice to a house painter and sign maker. For several years, he worked up to 60 hours a week for little – and sometimes no – money. By the time he was 21, Kershaw’s ambitions were to be more that "just a plain painter." He has made successful efforts at producing small paintings. He sold the first of these paintings and used the proceeds to invest in some graining tools. From house decorating and sign painting, Kershaw moved into woodgraining. His first attempt was oak. He was so successful at imitating wood, his graining business escalated rapidly, and his dream of moving into the "fine arts" was shelved. He turned his attention from mastering fine art painting to becoming the best craftsman at this trade… and making quite a good living for himself and his family.

And he did just that.

Having developed tools, paints and methods for which he received numerous patents, Kershaw became highly respected and sough after. His commissions were given by members of the Royal Family and the elite of England. Unfortunately, though some of these works are still points of interest for tourists today, 100 years after his death much of Kershaw’s work was destroyed during the bombing of World War II. For a time, he traveled extensively. In those days, a trip from Bolton, in the north of England, to London was equivalent to an overseas journey today.

Information on Kershaw

Kershaw was also a family man, with 19 children, 13 of whom died early in childhood. The master turned down commissions in St. Petersburg and Paris because of his love for and allegiance to his homeland and family. Kershaw was considered to be not only an artist but also an excellent businessman and promoter of the trade. Soon after completing his apprenticeship and journeyman phase, he vowed "hereafter to be no man’s servant but my own." His financial success? Well, when he died in the late 1800s, Kershaw left 148,000 pounds to his beneficiaries, which by today’s standards would make him a multi-millionaire. All from wood graining and marbling!

The panels on display at the Bolton Museum were the best I’ve ever seen. It’s no wonder that Bill Holgate has been trying to crack the secrets of Kershaw’s techniques and coloring for so many years. It appeared as though shafts of light were dancing through the panels – impossible, though since they were painted on wood or slate and positioned against a wall! I examined each panel one by one, taking still photographs and slides to bring home.

The 21-inch x 60-inch panels were absolutely flawless. Not a brush mark could be seen. So flawless was his work, in fact, that during an exhibition of his work in Paris in 1855, detractors of the art publicly accused Kershaw of not painting his samples but, rather, transferring their surface by some method from the natural woods and marbles. To answer their protests, Kershaw confounded the skeptics by executing some specimens of his skill in front of friends and fellow Grainers. The speed with which he performed his art was as astounding as the work itself and left his critics speechless.

Marble and Color Recipes

Kershaw was quoted as saying that he would never copy the work of another man, but always took his models from natural woods and marbles – nature being the best schoolmaster. After having seen his panels of Irish Marble and Galway Marble, I decided to take his advice.

From Bolton, I traveled to Ireland to visit a marble quarry and gather samples for duplication. I picked up some Galway, which is black marble with white fossils, but it wasn’t the same Irish marble that Kershaw had copied. He had panels of Connemara which is more green in color and comes from a quarry not far from Galway. The owner of the 138-acre Connemara quarry was good enough to give me several pieces of Connemara in order to copy them. I’m really very excited about adding these to the existing grains and marbles that I currently teach. Had I to do it over again, I think I would have visited the quarries on the last day of my 16-day trip, instead of early in the trip. Lugging hundreds of pounds of marble across two countries and two continents was no easy task.

From Ireland I headed back to London to visit some of the landmark displays of Kershaw’s work. This included a visit to the Victoria & Albert Museum which houses six additional panels of Kershaw’s. More important than seeing the panels, Kershaw had been commissioned by Prince Albert to do work in the museum itself. The museum’s pillars were Breche Violet, a Portuguese marble that Kershaw painted with such artistry that it is difficult to distinguish his work from the real thing.

The curators of the museum also gave me access to transparencies of the Kershaw panels on display at the museum. I wanted to find Kershaw’s notes on duplication, details of his methods and coloring, and information on the tools he used. After exercising much patience and sifting through seemingly endless historical documents, I hit pay dirt. I found a copy of his last will and testament, his color recipes, formulas, and methods. I also located some tools and copies of his patents from the mid-18—‘s. I considered it an honor and privilege to have access to this material, and I wasted no time in calling Bill Holgate to tell him of the find.

Bill was more excited than I was. He had searched for almost 50 years and always came up empty. Some materials and colors can still be acquired in Europe, but others have to be duplicated. With all the information I now have, and the expertise of Bill and myself, we hope to have the formulas ready by early 1994.

Before Kershaw’s death, he predicted that there would be a resurgence in the popularity of the wood graining and marbling trade. In the past decade, that prediction has come true. And now, nearly 100 years after his passing, Kershaw will be instrumental in the further development of the art he loved as much as life itself. Bill Holgate taught with me in several of my classes in the U.S., and I was invited by him to join him once again in teaching some classes during early 1994. Our first class was in Hawaii in January 1994.

The cost of the class remained  the same, but the benefits were two-fold: two instructors plus finishes that have never been taught in previous classes. Not to mention sand, surf,… If you want a working vacation in beautiful, sunny Hawaii, this was your chance. My summer vacation was certainly an experience of a lifetime. A dream come true. I wish to thank all those who helped me in my quest: Curators at the Victoria & Albert Museum and the Bolton Museum, Bill Holgate, and the J.H. Ratcliffe Company which provided the funding for the restoration of Kershaw’s panels.

Also a special thanks goes to the quarry owners in Ireland who were so good as to provide me with sample of some of the most beautiful marble that country has to offer – a marble mastered in duplication by the Prince of Grainers and Marblers.

Since the time this article article was written, my dear friend, colleague and mentor William Holgate has passed away. He will be sorely missed. 

(He's likely changing the Pearly Gates to Marble :)