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Kendall, Thomas Henry & Son (1837-1919)

Kendall, Thomas Henry & Son

Chapel Street, Warwick, Warwickshire.; carvers (b.1837-d.1919)

T. H. Kendall was born in Kineton, Warwickshire in 1837, the 4th son of William Kendall (1803-87), a builder/architect, County Surveyor and Bridgemaster for Warwickshire. He was subagent to Lord Willoughby de Broke of Compton Verney, agent to Henry Spencer Lucy of Charlecote Park and sub-agent and later agent to the Earl of Warwick.

The family’s move to Castle Park House in 1850 gave Thomas the opportunity to study works at Warwick Castle. He visited the Great Exhibition the following year, both of which inspired him to follow a career in carving. He was apprenticed to James Morris Willcox, who worked at Warwick Castle. Showing great promise, Kendall was allowed to work with another promising apprentice, Charles Humphriss, on Willcox’s great sideboard, which was executed c. 1853-58 and was eventually bought by Mrs Lucy for Charlecote Park (illus. Symonds & Whineray (1962), pls 16 & 17).

When his master, Willcox, died in 1859, Kendall’s father bought his workshop and studio and Thomas Henry was set up in business at the age of twenty-two. Some of Willcox’s men stayed on to work for Kendall including Hodgetts, the chief cabinet maker, who had also worked on the Charlecote Buffet; Charles Humphriss, who became foreman; and William Green, another gifted carver, who had worked on Willcox’s commission for Samuel Peto at Somerleyton Hall. The workshops henceforth operated with about one quarter of the workforce of Willcox’s time; according to the 1861 Census, Thomas H. Kendall lived and worked at Chapel Street, as a woodcarver and cabinet maker who employed nine men and four boys.  

As well as elaborate carved sideboards, the firm produced firescreens, toilet tables, mirrors and chairs. Some original drawings for firescreen, tables, looking glasses and chairs, c.1860-62, for clients including Sir Charles Mordaunt, Mr Brooke Evans, Mr Douglas Evans of Edgbaston, Countess of Jersey and Colonel L.V. Lloyd are illus. Symonds & Whineray (1962) pls 23-28, 101 & 187, 239 and figs 118, 159, 162, 212. Another early client was Lord Leigh of Stoneleigh Abbey, previously a patron of Willcox; in October 1860, Kendall supplied him with a ‘Group of Birds in Lime Tree, A Magpie and Lark, and Oval Frame for Do.’ (price £18 18s), and also a handsome table (now at the Warwickshire Museum).

Kendall also worked on various royal commissions. He exhibited several pieces at the 1862 International Exhibition, London, and was awarded two medals for woodcarving (one of them for the ‘Life and Drawing’ carving now also at the Warwickshire Museum).

Towards the end of 1862 Kendall received an important commission from Sir Charles Mordaunt of Walton House, near Wellesbourne, Warwickshire, for carved oak dining furniture (table, chairs, side tables and sideboard with a carved representation of Love and Wine, with the arms of Mordaunt above). It is believed that payment for part of this commission was made in timber from the estate and Kendall made a bookcase of light oak from this source for his great friend, John Margetts.

The following year the same piece was submitted to the Animal or Still Life Division at the 1863 Wood Carving Exhibition held by the Royal Society of Arts, and was awarded the 2nd Prize of £4, to be divided between the carvers, William Green and Charles Humphriss, with honourable mention of their employer, T. H. Kendall. Kendall was himself awarded second Prize, again £4, in the Natural Foliage, Fruit or Flowers Division for a group consisting of a paper knife, stiletto and Christmas box.

In 1864 Kendall decided to move his business to Leamington where he set up a showroom in the Parade. This proved unprofitable and in 1866 he moved back to old studio and showrooms in Chapel Street, Warwick.  In this same year he entered into partnership with his friend C. B. Shaw, as wine and spirit merchants, and later as agents of the County Fire and Provident Insurance. Both of these were successful businesses and enabled Kendall to continue woodcarving. 

In 1866 restoration work began on St James’s Chapel, Lord Leycester Hospital, Warwick and reputedly Kendall carved the new choir stalls. In the late 1860s Mark Phillips, MP for Manchester, built Welcombe, a Jacobean style new mansion near Stratford-upon-Avon and supposedly carvings by Kendall or his workshops were bought, later inherited by marriage by the Trevelyan family at Wallington Hall, National Trust.

By 1870 Kendall’s reputation as a leading master carver was established and new clients were the Earl of Jersey, the Marquis of Hertford and Lieut. Col. J Miller of Shotover, near Oxfordshire. In 1872 the Government invited Kendall to carve, to his own design, thirty-two panels for the dining room at the House of Commons. At this time he still maintained his studio and workshops with a small staff; the 1871 Census listed him as a woodcarver at 20 Chapel Street, Warwick, employing eight men and one boy. Kendall continued to participate in various exhibitions; the 1881 Exhibition of Ancient and Modern Woodcarving at the Royal Albert Hall (an owl and an aneroid barometer – the latter for which he carved an elaborate frame, which was given to the Duke of Edinburgh by former Mayor of Warwick, F. W. Arkwright) and the Royal Academy shows in 1898, 1899 and 1900. 

Ecclesiastical carving commissions included choir stalls for Holy Trinity Church, Windsor, medallions of the 12 Apostles in the chapel at Wynnstay and a lectern at Bodelwyddan, Flintshire (illus. Stevens (1980) p. 47).

He also provided a carved chimney-piece for the Mayor’s Parlour in the Court House, Warwick, which was made from oak from the nearby Wroxall Abbey, a ceremonial casket for the Corporation of West Bromwich and carving in the Prince’s Chamber of the Guildhall of St Mary, Coventry (for which he was paid £189 12s). A rare piece of outdoor work was the porch for the old Masonic Rooms, Warwick (3 High Street) in 1892. In 1894 James and Margaret Beale of Standen, Sussex, commissioned an 'oak settee' of a design adapted from the old Saxon chair at the Earl of Leycester's Hospital, Warwick and another settle (illus. Ikin (2023), p.336-7). At the same date Margaret's father commissioned Kendall to copy an old oak table and three chairs from the family home as a gift to the couple at Standen.  

When Princess Mary of Teck married the Duke of York (later George V) in 1893, Kendall was commissioned to carve a frame and book cover for the wedding gifts from the towns of Warwick and Leamington. Various members of the Royal Family visited Kendall’s workshop and studio in the 1880s and 1890s and a lengthy description of the workshop and studio was given in the Daily News, 15 August 1885 (see Stevens (1980) pp. 29-31). The press in 1895 referred to two pieces, whose whereabouts now unknown; a flower and fairy frame and an oak bookcase commissioned by the Earl of Warwick to house his collection of Shakespeare volumes.  

By the end of the 19th century Kendall’s work was mainly ecclesiastical in Warwickshire; a pulpit given in 1897 to St Mary’s Church, Warwick, an organ case for Tamworth-in-Arden, pulpits for Burton Dassett and Prior Marston, and an altar table and choir stalls for St Nicholas’ Church, Warwick.

Photographs of Kendall’s studio and workers in Kendall’s studio garden of 1900 are illus. Stevens (1980) p. 46.

Due to ill health Kendall gave up work about 1910 but continued to supervise the workshop. His son Douglas had married in 1902, and from then the firm focused on the wine and spirit business, rather than woodcarving. By Thomas Kendall’s death in 1919, demand for wood carving had diminished and the workshop in Chapel Street was closed, although the studio and contents remained intact until 1957 when sold.  

Sources: Aslin, 19th Century English Furniture (1962); Symonds and Whineray, Victorian Furniture (1962); Stevens, The Woodcarvers of Warwick (1980); Ikin, 'The Furnishing of Standen', Furniture History (2023)