Narrowboat painting - the origin?

[Pluto]

I came across this newscutting which suggests a Mr Atkins was thew first to paint items on narrowboats. Has anyone come across a 'kettle'?

[Derek R.]

A fascinating report. A wooden kettle - I can only think of something like a breadboard with a scene on one side to be hung as a picture, and bare wood the other for cutting bread upon. Never heard of such a thing as a kettle that was not an item that was able to contain water, other than in the geological sense of 'kettle hole' - depressions in the landscape created by huge ice boulders, which themselves filled with water as the ice melted and were treacherous places for large mammals.

http://www.shropshiregeology.org.uk/sgspublications/Proceedings/1988%20No_07%20020-021%20Coope%20Condover%20mammoths.pdf

 

ETA: It may have been a bowl of sorts, taking the name of kettle from such as a kettle drum.

As to Mt Atkins being the first to adorn items with scenes, I wonder if that was 'within his own area'? For surely many items of furniture (Sheraton springs to mind) and clock faces were adorned with landscapes and flowers prior to Mr. Atkins involvement?

Edited November 6, 2016 by Derek R.

[dave moore]

Tony Lewery explores the Atkins enigma in his book Flowers Afloat. The kettle board is also featured, a wooden circular board with a handle, decorated on one side. So far, no one has asked me to paint one!

 

Dave

[Laurence Hogg]

With the plethora of continental similar art, some of great antiquity one will wonder for a long just where "ours" came from. Whilst there used to be a saying that the "roses" got more realistic as you went north (ie Bridgewater canal ones were superb) I do wonder where the abstract BCN schemes originated? more akin to Portugal and Spanish fishing boats.

A mystery we are unlikely ever to solve.

Edited November 6, 2016 by Laurence Hogg

[Triskele]

What an interesting newspaper cutting!

 

Many theories have been put forward about the origins of narrow boat decoration and I guess we shall never really know the exact process of evolution. However, a little theory, for what it is worth...

 

The flowers & landscape type of decoration was popular during the 18th & 19th century for those that could afford it. Pre Industrial Revolution, all manner of stuff was decorated by hand, often by craftspeople who were very skilled with a paintbrush. It has been commented on before about the similarity between the landscapes on Delft tiles and canal castle scenes.

 

From 1756 onwards, mass production of litho - transfer printed pottery and tiles started to take off in a big way, which meant - mass redundancy over a very short period for those very skilled painters. Locationally their work had been in the areas that were now linked by the New Canal Age - London, Bristol & Liverpool were centres of pottery production and were also transhipment hubs for such goods plus, the T & M Canal went straight through The Potteries themselves, the boats being used to transport from this area to other places.

So... faced with almost overnight joblessness, is it possible that some of these skilled painters diversified and started to work as signwriters and / or decorative painters? They certainly would have had the brush skills. Possibly, some started to work at boatyards or docks, or as general jobbing painters.

 

By the end of the 1700s, the previously relatively unadorned narrow boat started to evolve into the more traditionally decorated narrow boat as we know know it. This occurred as families started to live and work on their boats, which was not the case in the early days of the canals. This change was brought about by certain taxation changes at that time which made it difficult for boating families retain a land based dwelling. I am pretty sure that the new age boatwoman would have loved the opportunity to have some of those fancy flowers & pictures type stuff in her new but tiny home, and I do wonder if the fact that there were skilled artists looking for work, or already working at, the places that the narrow boats travelled through and to, meant that Narrow Boat Decoration evolved from this type of circumstanstial background.

 

Well, that's the little theory...... like I said earlier , we'll probably never know, but it's interesting to speculate. The above thoughts were brought about after I visited the Potteries Museums in Stoke a few years back and read about the huge change that transfer printing made to the livelyhoods of pottery and tile painters.

[Derek R.]

The Kettle Board is the most probable explanation, and I can imagine its usefulness when cooking on a small range to make space for a couple of pans by placing a kettle on such a board upon the table flap or step so as to prevent marks on either. We'd probably use a fabric heatproof pad today.

 

As Dave says, Tony Lewery explores the subject in some depth in his 'Flowers Afloat', specifically pages 42 through to 49 with the cutting shown by Pluto transcribed therein, being one of two newspaper articles (though much the same and only six days apart. One accredited to the Midland Daily Telegraph 22 July 1914, the other unaccredited and dated as Pluto's post).

[dave moore]

Another possible source could be the commercial artists who painted long case clock dials. I have a couple of examples here and the brushwork of the floral work is similar to the canal rose, while one of the landscapes has many of the elements of the canal castle scene...water, sky, castle style building etc.....with the addition of a sailing ship and people dotted on the foreshore, as allowed by their artistic skills. There was a factory in Birmingham who produced these dials, which is of course the hub of the canal network. Perhaps boaters employed these painters to decorate their craft, bringing them in line with current fashion. These may well have been simplified by boatyard painters at subsequent dockings and repaints. I've no hard evidence to back up this line of thought, just putting a possibility forward. I doubt that there will ever be a definitive answer to the question posed, as Laurence says. The painting was never meant to last over long, re-done regularly. Little remains pre WW1, sadly.

 

Dave

[Pluto]

Birmingham might be the centre of the narrow canal network, but there are wide canals as well! This is an example of the painting of a L&LC square sterned boat. The origins of the decoration are discussed in the book on Brightwork I wrote with Sam Yates, who learnt his skills when employed as a boatbuilder at Hodson's Whitebirk dock, near Blackburn.

[Triskele]

Two delft tile pics dated c. 1780 plus a long case clock face from 1880 ( the flower and landscape decoration of this type of clock face started in the early 1700s).

Hope my posting of the pics works, I'm only an occasional visitor to this site and still learning how to use it...Thought Dave might appreciate the clock one in particular.

 

[Derek R.]

Excellent - Castles, water, floating items be they boats or birds - indications of strength, tranquility, and beauty or trade. All long sought for down millennia.

[Chris M Jones]

I be very wary of taking Arthur Atkins comments about painting the first water can with a large pinch of salt, although its going to be almost impossible to disprove it. Atkins was considered to be rather full of himself and too big for his boots. Some of his fellow toll clerks were glad to see him go when he did retire.

It is indeed true that he was an amateur painter and an example of his work was published on page 64 in August 2004 edition of Waterways World.

He first started work as a junior clerk at Braunston on the 1st June 1851, to assist the toll clerk who was crippled with rheumatism in his hands.

Perhaps the most annoying part of his story is that he would have seen painted boats passing Braunston Stop, most likely on a daily basis, and he could have asked the more senior captains and crew members when was the first time they saw decorative painting on boats, or more specifically where and when they thought boat painting first started. These boaters would have witnessed the first painted boats within their lifetimes. If he had mentioned that to the newspaper reporter we would all be much better informed as to the real origin of decorative boat painting.

Birmingham is often considered to be the centre of the canal system, but back in the middle of the 19th century Wolverhampton and the Black Country was the base for many large fleets involved in the large iron trade from there to London. Added to that was a large number of boatmen contractors based there, particularly at Oldbury, who worked for the carriers with many owning their own craft. Wolverhampton and Bilston was also the home of many artisan craftsmen and women and had also been a centre of the japanning and enamelling industry producing painted ware very similar in subject matter and style to boat painting. So its likely this part of the midlands was the place where this distinctive art form originated with plenty of independent boatmen carriers to fuel a growing decorative painting tradition.

Edited November 18, 2016 by Chris M Jones

[Laurence Hogg]

Many years ago whilst running as "Inland Waterways Models" I was asked to clean and repair this very old model boat for Stoke Bruerne museum. It was alleged to date from mid 17th century and be a model for a fly boat. It had a completely round bottom but was made in such a way as to be very accurate with its detail. The painting was very plain, cabin sides were pale cream (white originally?) but the other colours are those still seen today. I reckon it is possibly the earliest accurate example of a livery, whose I don't know.

 

Where the model is today I am unsure but it ought to be on show.

 

 

Photo taken around 1973

Edited November 18, 2016 by Laurence Hogg

[Ian Mac]

Many years ago whilst running as "Inland Waterways Models" I was asked to clean and repair this very old model boat for Stoke Bruerne museum. It was alleged to date from mid 17th century and be a model for a fly boat. It had a completely round bottom but was made in such a way as to be very accurate with its detail. The painting was very plain, cabin sides were pale cream (white originally?) but the other colours are those still seen today. I reckon it is possibly the earliest accurate example of a livery, whose I don't know.

 

Where the model is today I am unsure but it ought to be on show.

 

 

Photo taken around 1973

This hull design is very similar to that of the NB Dove, a LNER maintenance boat and the shortened HNC boat (57 ft) with a broken back which was sunk at the bottom of Marple locks, on the offside above lock1. This shortened boat had just been repaired at Jinks yard, and broke its back when the pound drained overnight, so it was just left there. This is the story told by Tom Long the Marple foreman. Both boats had complete rounded bilges. The Dove was an absolute joy to tow. Such a shame it was lost in the Portland Warehouse fire. The shortened boat was dredged out when the canal was restored in the early 70's

[Pluto]

A fewf photos from the 1970s of the boats at Dukinfield.

 

 

[bookworm]

New illustration from 1870's - http://canalbookcollector.blogspot.com