- Also known as
-
S W Fores
-
primary name: Fores, S W
-
other name: (Messrs) Fores
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other name: Fores & Co
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other name: Fores Gallery
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other name: Fores, Samuel William
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other name: Messrs Fores, Sporting and Fine Art print Repository & Frame Manufactury
- Details
- individual; publisher/printer; British; Male
- Other dates
- 1761-1838 (continued by heirs)
- Address
- by 1741, 41 Piccadilly, London
by 1784, 3 Piccadilly, London (address on ": A beast of prey. Tally.....tally..h", of Jan 29 1784 1868,0808.5115)
by 1st Jan 1796, moved to 50 Piccadilly, corner of Sackville Street (address on "Symptoms of Crim. Con.!!", Jan 1 1796, 1935,0522.8.39)
57 St Paul's Church Yard (address on "A high wind in St. Pauls Church Yard", 28 May 1793, impressions at Lewis Walpole Library (793.05.28.01+) and London Metropolitan Archive)
1818-19, addresses at 50 Piccadilly and 312 Oxford Street
1820 onwards, lettering on prints gives address as 41 Piccadilly (same shop, renumbered; 'corner of Sackville Street' sometimes added to address as c. 1840 as Messrs Fores, Sporting and Fine Art print Repository & Frame Manufactury (for view by T.H.Shepherd see Crace X 139)
1938, Fores & Co moved to 138 New Bond Street
1940s? as Fores Ltd moved to 29 Bruton Street
1980 as Fores Gallery Ltd moved to15 Sicilian Avenue
- Biography
- Publisher and printseller in business for 200 years from 1783. This entry is used for all variations of the firm's name.
S.W.Fores was son of a cloth mechant. Founded his business as a printseller in 1783, specialising in caricatures.
After S W Fores's death in 1838 the business was continued as Messrs Fores by his sons, George Thomas Fores (1806-58) and Arthur Blücher Fores (1814-83), who moved from satirical to sporting prints. It continued to be run by the descendants of George Thomas Fores until well into the 20th century. In the early 21st century the remaining stock was acquired by Stephen Ling of Brackley, Northamptonshire, who continues to reprint the plates (information from Simon Turner).
See Heal,17.53 for a bill-head from 3 Piccadilly dated 1793, and Crace X. 55.139, for a view of the shop at the corner of Sackville Street
- Bibliography
- Lugt 2384
ODNB (by Simon Turner)
Mark Bills, 'Samuel William Fores, satirist: Caricatures from the Reform Club', Sudbury Gainsborough's House, 2014 (review Ralph Hyde, PQ XXXII 2015, p.320).
