THOMAS WILKINSON WALLIS. A PAIR OF LATE 19th CENTURY GOTHIC ...

Hammer

£580

THOMAS WILKINSON WALLIS. A PAIR OF LATE 19th CENTURY GOTHIC REVIVAL CARVED OAK PICTURE FRAMES of moulded design with carved masked corners, the reverse with the original label for T.W. Wallis, Carver, Gilder. Louth. 47.5cm high, 54cm wide - Thomas Wilkinson Wallis was the greatest woodcarver of Victorian England. Born in impoverished circumstances in Hull, by 1844 he had established his own business in Louth Lincolnshire, and for the 1851 he submitted seven carvings, 'of which ‘Trophy of Spring’ was awarded a medal. It was his most intricate carving, it took him 8 months to complete and was considered to surpass the work of Grinling Gibbons. Wallis also won medals at the 1855 Paris Exhibition and the London Great Exhibition in 1862.' In 1899 – four years before his death – he published his 'Autobiography of Thomas Wilkinson Wallace, Sculptor in Wood, and Extracts from his Sixty Years' Journal