HUGIJENOT ARTISTS DESIGNERS AND CRAYPSNEN IN GREAT ...

143.
commissioned for the Hall of Lincoln's Inn,
'I have enquired of Mr.Gosset, a Frame maker in Berwick Street about
the price of one somewhat in the manner of the sketch below, he believes
it may come to about 30 pound Guilt to about half as much unguilt and
about five pounds less if my Lord Windham's arms are omitted. Frames
may be carried up to a great expense, but he thinks one cannot be
made in proportion to the picture for less'; a footnote adds
'I have removed the picture home again in hopes of making some
improvements whilst the Frame is making.' The sketch at the base of
the letter is annotated 'a Moulding of 11 or 12 inches broad with
carving at the corners arid in the middles' and 'my Lord Windham's armes
if Judg'd proper' 'The Gosset in this letter may be identified with
Jacob Isaac or Matthew. Only two works by Matthew Gosset are known today,
they are of George II and Queen Caroline, and are in the Museum at
Detroit. They are both contained in their original 'rames, which
may well have been made for Matthew by Jacob Gosset. 'However, as Vertue
insists, Isaac Gosset continued to undertake frame-making for his
artist friends, these included Thomas Gainsborough, William Hoare
and Allan Raxnsay. In 1763, Hoare wrote to the 2nd Earl of Egremont,
that he had 'given orders to Mr.Gosset my Framemaker to wait on you,
who will give you a Receipt for me'. Meanwhile Gosset had supplied
'a modell of ye Queene in a Rich frame for the use of !kr.William Hoare'
for which he received four guineas. Vertue adds that
in carving can be managed under his care', and it seems that Gosset's
artist friends took advantage of this. Thus it is no surprise to find
William Hoare writing from Bath to Charles Yorke n London, 9th August,
1764 to say that 'Mr.Gosset has the account of the pictures I have had
the pleasure to do for you & I will desire him to wait on you'. In
another letter dated October 4th, 1764, William Hoare writes that Mr.
Gosset has received the amount due and thanks him.
Similarly a letter from Ramsay to Richard Davenport, July 8th, 1767,
encloses a bill for the frame for Ramsay's picture of M.Rousseau
'Mr. Davenport to Isaac Gosset of Daillain, For a three-quarter frame
oiled gold 12.2.0.; and a case for ditto £O.6.O.'Whitley thought that
Dallain was a mistake for London, however Dallain occurs in tg family
bible and probably refers to their place of ogigin in France.