Frank Partridge and William Hesketh Lever - National Museums ...

married, Robert and Doris took a small shop in Great Portland Street, where theyquickly attracted attention through the fine quality of their goods. Dorisunderstood the way the markets went much better than Robert did, because shehad made contacts in the trade through her parents. Robert was serving a formof apprenticeship, first with the Cohen family, and then with his wife.Looking for a job with a ‘knowledge of practice’, Frank joined Robert around1891­1892. In his memoirs he noted, ‘I had to work hard with Robert. … Frommorning to night I was kept busy in the shop and in the store­room, brushing theshelves, fetching trays, carrying exhibits and lifting and shifting cases of china,which Doris had managed to buy cheaply at one of the sales.’ 7‘One important aspect of antiques which I was fortunate enough to discover rightat the beginning is that their genuineness can always be ascertained by he whohas a real knowledge of the colours used on the originals, by the first craftsmen.It is a knowledge which can be acquired through personal experience, and notthrough theory; through one’s own eyes and not by the books of others.’ 8After the youngest brother, Leonard, came to join Robert’s business, Frank hadsome time to get out and see London and to experience himself as a ‘youngblooded dealer’. The most vivid memory he later described was going to theCaledonian ‘Cattle Market’ 9 with his brother and trying to sell things there, butwithout financial success. In 1893 Frank was offered a job by an American dealerfrom Chicago who came one day to Robert’s shop and asked him if he wasinterested in a new career. The Chicago of 1893 was a city of superlatives. 10 Ithosted the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition, which was much bigger thanLondon’s Crystal Palace Exhibition of 1851, and even bigger than the 1889 ParisExposition. Encouraged by Robert, Frank decided to go to Chicago to make hisAmerican dream come true and was happy to accept the conditions: ten dollars aweek and free board.Unfortunately the dream soon turned into bitter reality. Frank didn’t get paid aspromised, and sadly he had to leave the shop, trying to survive in several jobssuch as polishing furniture for an Italian and performing as ‘England’s LeadingComedian’ for one night in a local theatre. He convinced a German antiquesdealer of his skills and reliability by cleaning his horses and worked in his shopfor a while, but when Frank’s sister sent some money for the passage home heleft America. Emily was waiting for him in Liverpool. ‘I would not be seeking out apark bench to rest on, but that instead I would be going to sleep in the bed I had7G. B. Spencer, 1961, p.19.8G. B. Spencer, 1961, p.19.9In the early 20th century, as the trade in live animals diminished, a bric­a­brac marketdeveloped which after the Second World War transferred south of the river becoming the NewCaledonian or Bermondsey Market. The markets finally closed in 1963.10C. M. Rosenberg, America at the Fair: Chicago’s 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition, p.62.3