Dennis Williams
Gone but not forgotten
And whilst we are here...a bloke in the Eckstein painting above of the Jacobin Club with John Freeth - him third from RIGHT with a top hat on....he also deserves a mention. One JAMES BISSETT esq.
cupateabiscuit writes of him on her blog, "James Bisset first arrived in Birmingham in 1776 as a young 16 year old ready to join his elder brother who had been working in the town already. James had been expecting to find a ''black and dismal town, smoky and unhealthy', but was delighted to discover that it had many fine streets, good brick buildings and one of the most handsome churches he had ever seen.' He describes his attire on the day that he arrived in the town:
"I was dressed [...] in white kerseymere vest & small clothes, a light blue coat, white silk stockings a pair of light pumps with silver buckles, a light stock with a stock buckle set with Bristol stone, a ruffled shirt & frill of lace worked by my sisters of which I had six others in my dressing trunk (exclusive of half a dozen other shirts with plain muslin ruffles which were then generally worn by every person the least genteel). My hat was a small cock & pinch." But he was much harder than he sounded...
We can see from his picture that James was styled as a fashionable young gentleman, but his future was not certain; he had no fortune and had to make his way in the changeable world of business and industry that Birmingham offered. He was apprenticed to a japanner (Bellamy's) and painted landscapes, flowers and fruit, and other decoration onto snuff boxes and waiters, working 12 hours a day. Not all of his fellow apprentices achieved as great a success in life as Bisset, and James really worked hard for all he accomplished.
JAMES BISSETT
James Bisset (Leamington Spa Art Gallery and Museum)
Biography (courtesy ODNB; by T F Henderson; revised by Michael Marker) below quote:
Bisset, James (1760–1832), artist and writer of verse, was born in Perth. He received his early education at a dame-school. He developed early a love of art and literature and from the age of nine began regularly to take the Gentleman's Magazine with the help of pocket money supplied by an indulgent uncle.
At the age of fifteen Bisset became an artist's apprentice at Birmingham. In the Birmingham Directory of 1785 his name appears as miniature painter, Newmarket, and in 1797 as fancy painter, New Street. In the latter premises he established a museum and shop for the sale of curiosities. He was also a coiner of medals, and was permitted to use the designation medallist to his majesty. On the title-page of one of his books he advertised medallions of their majesties and of several leading statesmen, and a medal commemorating the death and victory of Nelson. Bisset also had great facility in composing amusing and grandiloquent verses on the topics of the day; while he obtained a considerable profit from their sale, they served to attract customers to his museum and to advertise his medals. Among his earlier volumes of verse were The Orphan Boy, Flights of Fancy, Theatrum Oceani, The Peace Offering (1801), Songs of Peace (1802), and The Patriotic Clarion, or, Britain's Call to Glory: Original Songs Written on the Threatened Invasion (1803). The last was dedicated by permission to the Duke of York, and the presentation copy to George III with Bisset's inscription is in the British Library. One of his most notable works is his Poetic Survey Round Birmingham, with a brief description of the different curiosities and manufactures of the place, accompanied with a magnificent directory, with the names and professions etc superbly engraved in emblematic plates (1800). A second edition of the Directory appeared in 1808, with several additional plates, but without the Poetic Survey. In 1804 he published Critical Essays on the Dramatic Essays of the Young Roscius. In Birmingham he belonged to the Jacobin Club, consisting of twelve members, nicknamed the Apostles, who met at the Leicester Arms to discuss political subjects. A picture of the members was painted by the Prussian artist Eckstein; Bisset, as the oldest surviving member, fell heir to it.
In 1813 Bisset moved to Leamington, where he had opened a museum, newsroom, and picture gallery in the preceding year. A Picturesque Guide to Leamington, enlivened by stray scraps of verse was published by him in 1814, followed by Comic Strictures on Birmingham's Fine Arts and Conversaziones by an "Old Townsman" in 1829. His verses also appeared occasionally in the Gentleman's Magazine. He boasted that he had sold over 100,000 of his different works, and that many had reached the fifteenth and sixteenth editions. He died at Leamington on 17 August 1832, and was buried there, where a monument was erected by his friends to his memory. Bisset's collection of pictures, which included several celebrated paintings, as well as some pieces by himself, was sold by auction after his death.
Dolly and James Bisset 1790s (Leamington Spa Art Gallery and Museum)
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