Thomas Brazenor

Active: 1851 - 1905

Function: Carver, gilder, glass and picture frame maker

History or description: A business operating between 1881-c.1905 which was run by Thomas Brazenor (1831-1910), a carver and gilder who was active in this or associated trades from about 1851-1905.

Thomas Brazenor was born in Oswestry, Shropshire. He was the son of Thomas and Ann Brazenor, nee Wilding. His father and grandfather were saddlers from Pontesbury, Shropshire. By 1851 Brazenor was living and working in Birmingham as a picture frame gilder. A decade later he was a carver and gilder living in Marylebone High Street, London.

Around 1871 Brazenor and his family were resident in Hammersmith where he worked as a house painter. Thomas's wife, Hannah (née Legge from Puddleton, Dorset) ran a small private school for ladies. She later published a novel entitled 'Ivy Cranbourne or the Pedlar's Adopted Daughter: A Story of West Country Life' which was reviewed in the illustrated magazine 'Golden Hours' (1881).

Probably during the latter part of the 1870s Thomas Brazenor entered into partnership with another carver and gilder, James Cooper. They traded as Brazenor and Cooper, at 5 Albert Terrace, Notting Hill Gate. This partnership was dissolved by mutual consent on 18 October 1881. After this date Thomas ran the business on his own, relocating the firm to 21 Pembridge Road, Notting Hill Gate c.1895. He continued to work as a carver and gilder until at least 1905. Thomas Brazenor died in 1910.

In the early 1900s it is possible that Albert Ernest Brazenor (1881-1955) was also associated with the firm (his father, Robert, was a first cousin of Thomas Brazenor). Between c.1901-05 Albert appears to have been a frame maker. Whether he was working for Thomas is unproven but it is a distinct possibility that he was taken on to learn the trade and take over the business.

This entry includes information supplied by Aubrey Cox.

Citing this record

'Thomas Brazenor', Mapping the Practice and Profession of Sculpture in Britain and Ireland 1851-1951, University of Glasgow History of Art and HATII, online database 2011 [http://sculpture.gla.ac.uk/view/organization.php?id=msib1_1274098424, accessed 07 Dec 2021]