James Steuart Shanks

Robert Shanks was born in Calcutta and apprenticed as a coachmaker with the Steuart coachbuilders where his brothers were partners.

James went to University in Leiden, and apprenticed to the cloth merchant Bradbury Greatorex & Co [3] where he gained a knowledge of textiles.

[6] Magasin Anglais is often described as an outfitter, selling women's accessories such as handbags, fans, furs and gloves, fabric for clothing, carpets, silverware as well as jewellery, some made by the House of Bolin.

Items of silver were commissioned from the silversmith workshops of Maria Ivanovna Linke and were sold in by silverware division of the shop.

In 1853 James Steuart Shanks married Mary Louisa Schilling (of German-Baltic descent), they had nine children.