Samuel Lines

After a period working in agriculture for his uncle he moved to Birmingham in 1794 and secured an apprenticeship as a designer to Thomas Keeling, a firm of clockmakers and enamellers.

[2] Lines was then employed by Messrs Osborn and Gunby of Bordesley as a sword blade decorator, designer and engraving to the highest standard.

[5][6] His art classes notoriously started at five o'clock in the morning, with Lines himself personally visiting latecomers to rouse them.

[8] In 1809 he was one of a group of local artists who founded the Birmingham Academy of Arts – a school of life drawing that came closer to Lines' vision by holding its first public exhibition of its members' works after moving to Union Street in 1814.

[4] In December 2013 a Birmingham Civic Society blue plaque was attached to the Old Joint Stock pub, (formerly a bank) on the site of his home and drawing academy.