WISE, George (II); Wise & Co.

High Street, Tonbridge and Tunbridge Wells, Kent; print publisher and Tunbridge Ware Manufacturer (fl.1807-69).

George Wise was born in 1779, the nephew of and business assistant to Thomas Wise.

His uncle died in 1807 and George retained the premises on the High Street in Tonbridge as his main manufactory. This comprised 'five houses, workshops, yards and garden' [1838 Tithe Award Schedules]. The property was situated on the river leading to the Upper Medway Navigation, proving convenient for unloading timber and large sheds for storage. Two round prints published by Wise show the building and were used for box decoration. One shows the High Street frontage of two stories with a facia board at roof level inscribed 'WISE & CO. MANUFACTURERS', the other with the river frontage inscribed at second floor level, saying 'WISE’S MANUFACTORY'. 

For unknown reasons the premises were advertised for auction on 18 June 1841 by Shuttleworth & Sons, London. The property was described as a frontage of 105 feet to the High Street and 199 feet beside the River and that some of the buildings were in need of repair, including a large building 48ft x 20ft 'lately used for timber storage'. On the first storey were seven workshops and warerooms. 'A Spacious Private Entrance with Staircase to Show Rooms' and a 'Good Front Shop for the display of Tonbridge Ware',  as well as the residential rooms and a further 'Show  Room' accessed by a third staircase'. An estimated annual rental value of £145 was quoted. The sale may not have taken place as Wise continued to trade from this address.

Wise's main retailing market was in Tunbridge Wells. He had a repository close to the Well and Baths which probably fronted Frant Road. By the 1820s the new Calverley town on Mount Pleasant was being developed as a rival to the Parade. Calverley Promenade (now Calverley Park Crescent) was built 1830-35 and Wise leased No. 11 as a Tunbridge ware shop. Here he offered 'Work Boxes, Writing Desks, Netting, Card, Glove and other Boxes, Card Cases, handsome Tea Chests and Caddies'. This was apparently an unsuccessful venture because by 1845 he had moved back to the Parade where he conducted his business until 1857.

Apart from his retail activity in Tonbridge and Tunbridge Wells, Wise greatly increased his trade in other expanding resort towns. Initially Brighton was one of his main locations with his print decorated wares reflecting the various changes made to the Pavilion and the Royal Mews. However, competition from local Tunbridge ware makers was fierce and consequently he turned his attention to the Isle of Thanet. His prints there included Margate, Ramsgate, Broadstairs, and places of excursion such as the tea gardens of the St. Peter’s area. Over the other side of the Thames in Essex, Southend attracted his attention, as did south coast resorts such as Hastings and Worthing. He also supplied Inland spas such as Cheltenham, and published prints of various sites in Bath: the Abbey Church; the Pump Room; the Sidney Gardens and Hotel; the Royal Crescent; Landsdown Crescent, and All Saints Chapel.

Most of his print decorated boxes were made of whitewood and painted, but some were veneered in figured woods with the prints framed in gilt borders and penwork motifs. Wise decorated rosewood veneered boxes with parquetry, perspective cubes, vandykes, geometrical bandings, and decorative features in miniature parquetry.  He also used penwork and verre eglomisé, some of this work subcontracted to another Tonbridge craftsman named Connard.

Around c.1830 tessellated mosaic was beginning to be used for the first time. The discovery of these techniques has in the past been attributed to James Burrows, but George Wise is perhaps due the greater merit. Indeed, in an advertising handbill printed in connection with opening of his new repository at the Calverley Promenade in 1832, Wise claimed that he was 'THE ORIGINAL MANUFACTURERS OF THE FASHIONABLE MOSAIC AND INLAID TUNBRIDGE WARE'. This bill is in the name of George Wise & Co. indicating he had gone into partnership with his son. A box, bearing a gilt crown in the penwork decoration on its front, has a tessellated representation of a butterfly on the lid and may be a commemorative item for William IV’s Coronation in 1831. Wise produced a painted and print decorated whitewood box with a similar crown commemorating George IV’s Coronation, now in the Tunbridge Well’s Museum. 

Rudolph Ackermann sold Tunbridge ware for Wise. In the first four months of 1812 he paid Wise £436 9s 10d for items supplied and also supplied Wise with trade materials. Princess Victoria commissioned a blotter cover depicting the Round Tower of Windsor Castle through Ackermanns (c.1835), now in the Museum of London. 

Although Wise produced a number of views incorporating mosaic work, such as Tonbridge Priory, Tonbridge Castle &c., they were not labelled and may have been attributed to other makers using similar techniques in the 1830s and 1840s. He also manufactured small items of furniture, for example, a rosewood games table with a handwritten inscription beneath the top: 'Geo Wise town 1854'. 

Wise displayed his wares at the 1853 New York Exhibition and received a bronze medal. His exhibits included a 'table, boxes, desks and fancy articles in inlaid and mosaic Tunbridge ware'. 

The 1851 Census recorded him as a 71 year old Tunbridge ware manufacturer, employing nine men at Toy Hall, 40 High Street, Tonbridge. 

George Wise II died on 6 March 1869 and the business was continued by his son, George III: https://bifmo.history.ac.uk/entry/wise-george-iii-1841-1876

Sources: Austen, Tunbridge Ware (3^rd ed., 2001);  Austen, ‘Tunbridge Wares with Royal Connections’, FHS Newsletter (May 2015); Kent County Archives U55/SP717; John & Jill Ford, Images of Brighton (Richmond, 1981), Gallery 344.