Frome Museum J.W Singer & Sons

THE FOUNDER
John Webb SINGER was born at The Butts on February 23rd 1819, the youngest son of Joseph SINGER, a carpenter and builder. Joseph died when John was 3 leaving a destitute widow and six children. As a boy John was interested in metal and tried to cast toy cannons in iron, which he found difficult. He was educated at the BLUE HOUSE as a 'Hat Boy', at the expense of the trustees. Leaving school he was apprenticed to a local watchmaker and jeweller in Cheap Street for 5 years without pay. After a year with an uncle in London, he returned to manage the business until setting up on his own in 1851 at 25 Market Place.

He experimented with art metal work, making brass ornaments for the local clergy, especially Vicar Bennett of St. Johns, a supporter of liturgical revival and the Oxford Movement in the Church of England, and he hit a ready and growing market. After shutting up shop, he spent the evenings with his metal work, often until late at night. So the business expanded so he began to employ craftsmen whom he trained.
One day a local, titled lady brought back some brasswork from Italy and asked Singer of its antiquity. He replied "Only about five or six months". It had been cast in his foundry and sent to Italy.

In 1866 he gave up watchmaking and concentrated entirely on art metal work, relying on the quality of his work rather than advertising. A man of many varied interests, he collected cacti (gaining an R.H.S. silver medal), wine glasses, bookplates and silver (which he gave to the South Kensington Museum - later the Victoria and Albert); politics (he was a member of Frome Local Board and its successor the Urban District Council) and amateur dramatics. Education was important to him, so he founded Frome School of Art, paying the master's wages for the first year, and ensured his own sons got the artistic training he lacked. He established an apprenticeship scheme at the factory and was a trustee of the Blue House. A lifelong worshipper at St. Johns, he was churchwarden for a time. A founder member of the Frome Literary Institute, he knew this building well.
John married twice, having two sons by the second who followed him in the business. He died on May 6th 1904, at Knoll House in Gentle Street, soon after celebrating his Golden Wedding.

CHURCH ORNAMENTS
The Oxford Movement within the Church of England brought colour and liturgy back to rather staid worship in many churches. It lead to an increasing demand for church ornaments, which the expansion in church building in Victorian times increased. There was therefore a growing market for John Webb SINGER to satisfy. His association with Vicar Bennett, who arrived in Frome in 1852 and remained until his death in 1886, and who was a leading exponent of this Catholic tradition within the Anglican Church, enabled him to develop from within. His first pair of candlesticks, made using turnips as moulds, attracted further commissions as his fame spread.

The "Art Journal" of December 1861 mentioned SINGER as
"One of the major art metal workers of the period in a factory small but most efficient, with every person employed in it being a native of Frome."
"Work commenced in 1853 on a small scale, which has since been steadily increasing without the aid of advertisements, and entirely, we believe, from the intrinsic excellence of the work produced. He also made enamelled, medieval jewellery in silver, the demand for which is far more extensive in the supply. Some 15 to 20 hands are generally employed upon this and other interesting works. The articles mostly manufactured are altar rails, standards, coronas, brackets, chancel and chapel screens, gas standards, gates and candlesticks, for altar and domestic use. The great merit of Mr. Singer's productions is the variety and taste of his designs, all of which are the result of his own genius and of his enthusiasm in the application of art to his manufactures."