Historical Painting Techniques, Materials, and Studio Practice

Abstract
The Roberson Archive, the archive
of the artists' colorman Charles
Roberson & Co. (1819-1985) is
housed at the Hamilton Kerr Institute
in Cambridge. Roberson was
one of the most important colormen
in nineteenth-century London. The
material in the archive gives detailed
information about the internal
workings of the company and its relations
to both its customers and
suppliers. It is the largest artists' colorman
archive in the United Kingdom
and covers the period from
1815 to 1944, providing a record of
the materials and techniques of
many of the leading nineteenth- and
twentieth-century British artists. In
addition to catalogues, sample books,
and more than three hundred account
ledgers, there is a collection of
pigments and objects sold by Roberson
that provides material fo r analysis
and study. A three-year research
project is currently being undertaken
to catalogue the archive, compile a
database of the most important documents,
and make the archive accessible
for research.
Figure 1. Roberson's shop at 154 Piccadilly,
ca. 189{}-1911. Fitzwilliam Museum, University
of Cambridge.
The Roberson Archive: Content and Significance
Sally A. Woodcock
Hamilton Kerr Institute
University of Cambridge
Whittlesford
Cambridge CB2 4NE
United Kingdom
The company's history
Charles Roberson opened his first recorded shop to sell artists' materials at
54 Long Acre, London. Although accounts of the firm's history give the date
as 1810, Henry Matley is listed as "colourman to artists" at this address in a
trade directory of 1817, and a note in a recipe book dating from around the
turn of the century states that Roberson did not succeed Matley until 1819
(1). At that time, the shop was in the heart of the artistic area of London,
with the Royal Academy Schools being based nearby in Somerset House on
the Strand. In 1828 Roberson and his assistant Thomas Miller became partners
and moved to 51 Long Acre (2). The partnership dissolved in 1840.
The company continued to trade on Long Acre, moving to the premises they
built at number 99 in 1853. In 1868 the Royal Academy Schools moved to
Burlington House, Piccadilly, and Roberson opened a retail branch on Piccadilly
in 1890 (Fig. 1) (3). Over the following years, however, many artisans
and manufacturing trades moved away from the center of London to be
replaced by retailers and offices; in 1937 Roberson closed both the Piccadilly
and Long Acre branches, moving to Parkway, Camden (4). They retained a
West End presence for an unspecified length of time, arranging with the
Medici Galleries in Grafton Street to move a "representative stock of Artists
materials" from their closed Piccadilly branch in January 1940, to be sold
from the galleries on commission (5). Two successive French addresses appeared
in their catalogues after 1870, which they described as their depots in
Paris, but which were in fact the premises of Parisian colormen (6).
The company remained in the Roberson family until sold to a Dutch firm
in the 1970s. G. F. Roberson Park remained a board member (7). In 1985 it
went into liquidation. At liquidation the name was bought by the London
colorman Cornelissen and a small range of high-quality materials bearing the
Roberson name is still produced (8).
The arrival of the archive at the Hamilton Kerr Institute
In 1975 Roberson's historic accounts ledgers were moved to the Hamilton
Kerr Institute (9). They were loaned to the Institute for safekeeping and
research and, when the company was dissolved, became part of the Fitzwilliam
Museum's manuscript collection. The archive is now housed in the Institute
and will be available for research once cataloguing is complete.
The archive consists of a collection of objects, including a large number of
pigment samples, and more than three hundred ledgers dating from 1815 to
1944. There are several continuous series of different types of ledgers, but
there are many gaps, and some sets appear to be incomplete (10). Despite
this, it is the most extensive artists' colorman archive in the United Kingdom.
The manuscripts in the Roberson Archive give a detailed picture of the
company's activities. Only the most important categories are discussed here,
as many of the warehouse, order, day, and sundries books contain information
duplicated in the main accounts books.
Catalogues and sample books
The catalogues preserved in the archive date from 1840-1 853 to 1926-1933
and illustrate goods sold by Roberson. They offered a fairly conventional
30
Historical Painting Techniques, Materials, and Studio Practice