HUGIJENOT ARTISTS DESIGNERS AND CRAYPSNEN IN GREAT ...

166.
behaviour, but his work falls largely outside the scope of this thesis5
Another venture which was evidently connected with the demand of
the toy shops was the manufactory at York House, Battersea, 1753-6.
Entries in the Battersea Rate Books, show that the venture first
traded under the name of Janssen, Delainain and Brooks. Stephen Theodore
Janssen was a prominent merchant stationer, and in a good position to
obtain the fine paper used for transfer printg, the method used to
decorate their products. John Brooks, the manager, probably invented this
process, but there seems to be some confusion as to the identity of
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Delaniain, who is usually identified as the Dublin potter, Henry Delarnain.
However a Huguenot goldsmith of the same name is recorded in Bath in
1701 nd again in Soho in 1742. The latter may be a Thomas Delamain
who purchased the position of Secondary of the Poultry Compter in the
City of London, in July, 1745. Possibly the goldsmith was related to
the Dublin potter, and both were involved in the Battersea project, for
in 1753, Henry announced that he had purchased the art of printing
earthenware. However, the Dela.rnàin connection was short lived; in 1753,
John Brooks borrowed noney from Peter Gandon, a gunsmith of Westminster,
possibly the son of Pierre Gandon, arquebusier, of the same name who
was baptized at La Patente de Soho, in August, 1 7 1 3 However , by May,
1754, Gandon was declared bankrupt, and by 1756 Janasen had suffered the
same fate. It is significant that Henry Delamain died in Dublin in 1753,
leaving £1,000 to his wife, so it is pL'obable that Thomas Delamain
was the active partner at Battersea. As a goldsmith, he probably took
care of the mounts for attersea products which were of gold or silver
or alternatively of gilded copper.
The closure of the Battersea factory was followed by the
production of white enamelled boxes printed with music and the words
of French songs and with calenders for the years 175 8 and 1759, and the
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inscription 'Made by Anthony Tregent in Deniaark Street'. Antoine Tregent,
born in 1721 at Limel near Aries in the South of France, came to England
with his parents Antoine and Marguerite Tregent in about 17 40. Antoine
married Arnie Bruce at the Oxford Chapel in Vere Street in 175 0 and
eight of his children were baptized at the Huguenot church in L'cester
Fields. The fact that his second child was buried in 1752 in Battersea
Church Yard, suggests that Tregent was living in Battersea at the time