Carving
Thomas Henry Kendall (1837 - 1919)
Category
Art / Sculpture
Date
1878
Materials
limewood, oak frame, under glass
Measurements
94 x 72 x 24 cm
Place of origin
Warwick
Order this imageCollection
Wallington, Northumberland
NT 584957.1
Summary
One of a pair of limewood carvings, by Thomas Henry Kendall of Warwick, 1878. Set in their original oak frames, the one depicting two kingfishers with wings outstretched against a background of ferns and trailing plants, signed by Kendall and dated 1878, the other depicting a thrush flying away from a rat as it climbs towards it's nest containing three eggs, not signed and probably carved by Charles Humphriss, Kendall's studio foreman.
Full description
In the late 1860s, Mark Phillips, MP for Manchester, built Welcombe, a large mansion in the Jacobean style near Stratford-Upon-Avon. Kendall was responsible for the panelling in the Library and Great Hall and for the staircase, as well as many of the carvings. These two carvings were commissioned in 1878 to hang in the dining room. Mark Phillips' daughter, Caroline, married Sir George Trevelyan and when Welcombe was later sold these carvings were brought to Wallington. Thomas Henry Kendall (1837-1919) had been an apprentice in the studio workshop of James Morris Willcox and famously worked on the Charlecote Buffet, delivered in 1858 and still at Charlecote Park in Warwickshire. Upon the death of Willcox in 1859, Kendall took over the studio in Chapel Street, Warwick and appointed Charles Humphriss, a fellow apprentice, as his foreman. He would remain in post until retirement. The Kendall workshop undertook many major commissions, one of the most famous being the panels in the Members Dining Room of The Houses of Parliament (c.1874) depicting fish, fowl and fruit. Thomas Henry Kendall together with William Cookes & Sons, J. M. Willcox and Collier & Plucknett became known as The woodcarvers of Warwick and their distinctive style is sometimes referred to as the Warwick school of carving.
Provenance
Originally commissioned by Mark Phillips MP for Welcombe, near Stratford-Upon-Avon. Transferred to Wallington Hall when Welcombe was later sold by Caroline Trevelyan (nee Phillips). Given with the property to The National Trust in 1941 by Sir Charles Philips Trevelyan, 3rd Bt. (1870 - 1958).
Makers and roles
Thomas Henry Kendall (1837 - 1919), carver
References
Stevens, Ann 'The Woodcarvers of Warwick', p. 27