Thomas Skinner (etcher)
Thomas Skinner (16 June 1819 – 6 December 1881) was an etcher, inventor and amateur oil-painter in Sheffield, West Riding of Yorkshire, England.
During the 1840s he invented a method by which the mass production of etched designs on steel blades could be facilitated by means of paper transfers.
By 1841 at the age of 22 he was an ornamenter, living in Carver Street, Sheffield, with his widowed mother Mary who kept a lodging house.
Charles Rushby was remanded and committed to Sessions, with breaking and entering, ransacking drawers and boxes, and stealing "a silver-plated salver, jug, mug, beaker, three egg cups, a spoon, together with a pair of boots".
[8] By 1861 he was describing himself as an engraver on copper and living at 29 Charlotte Street, St George's, Sheffield, with Melinda and their son Clifford (Ecclesall 1855 – Poplar, London 1924).
On the day of the alleged assault, Allen refused to follow orders, and took it upon himself to pick out teapot handles for use at work without asking permission.
Skinner was nevertheless described by a friend as:[3] "A man of superior intellectual ability; had a very fine nervous organisation; and was extremely sensitive to all kinds of impressions.
He possessed enormously developed perceptive faculties which gave him his artistic and mechanical skill, his love for music, and fitted him for doing almost any kind of refined and delicate work.
It is a copy of Stothard's Vintage, and the execution holds out great promise from its producer, Mr Thomas Skinner ...
The piece possesses some claim to novelty, as well as merit, from being much larger in size than the generality of specimens of etching in steel, and is framed, for the purpose of hanging in a room.
However, although a large factory company might make good profit from his mass production idea, a small partnership business was more likely to have disproportionate overheads.
[24] The guidebook to the 1851 Great Exhibition said: "Our readers will notice the beautiful designs on some of the steel articles, razors &c, sent from Sheffield.
A proof is taken upon thin paper with ink made by boiling oil to a viscid consistence and adding a little lampblack.
The herein-described method of preparing the design upon the article to be operated on preparatory to the etching process by the means of transfers, substantially as set forth.
[17][18]In 1874, his UK patent for the invention of "improvements in the mode or process of etching on steel or iron, or other metal or substance" was Gazetted.
[11][12] "Having engraved the desired design on a small sheet of copper, he applied the chemical ink, and secured the impression by rubbing a strip of paper with his finger.
It was described by The Sheffield Independent as follows: "Take first a copper plate, and take first from it an impression with an ink made by boiling linseed oil to the consistency of common treacle; the paper used is thin, similar to that in use by the potters in transferring prints to earthenware.
In this state, hot water is poured on the work, which melts the resin and amalgamates it with the printing ink, which becomes a varnish sufficiently powerful to resist strong acid.
Mr Skinner showed me a painting of these works, a large red brick building, unpicturesque in its angular and staring newness.
"[11] Thomas Skinner was an etcher, an artist and a landscape painter in oils, showing "considerable merit as an amateur".
The Sheffield Daily Telegraph said, "Altogether his style of colour is vivid and showy; lacking the suggestiveness of mystery.
"[11] At 11.00 a.m. on 9 February 1882, after Skinner's death and on the day when his killer was sentenced, a sale of his effects was held at his former home in Glover Road.
Female attendees made it clear that "The Heeley Queen had few friends amongst them," and amongst them were Skinner's two sisters and Jane Jones, his former housekeeper.
The paintings were: The Beaver Cutlery works, North America, A lane near Matlock Bath, Beechwood Glen, A companion picture, Mademoiselle Beatrice, The Woman of the People, Landscape, Meeting in the lane, Spanish scene, Cattle in the meadow, A country lane, Windmill and cattle after Birket Foster, Scene on an American farm, Alpine loch and cattle, A log cabin, An American lake scene, A prison scene during the French Revolution, Lake scenery in America, A wood in America, A Derbyshire Toll-Bar, The flute-player, The Queen of Hearts, A Spanish beauty, A bridge at Windermere, Sheep waiting for admission at the gate, The meeting place, Beech trees and cattle, Cottage near a wood, The old farm, Scene in a Derbyshire lane, Going to market, Erin go bragh, Cottages near Southport, The drunkard's home, A country walk, Cattle at water, and Cattle and sheep.
It was mainly executed in Matteawan, the past summer, the artist being on a visit to his relatives there, Messrs John and William Rothery.
His figure paintings, Charlotte Corday and The Drunkard's Return,[nb 2] were both highly detailed and "finished to the fingernail".
[nb 3][19][20] Skinner was buried on Monday 12 December 1881 in a vault at "the centre of the upper portion of the churchyard" at All Saints Church, Ecclesall.
[35] The plot has a "handsome monolithic column" which bears the inscription, "In affectionate remembrance of Mellond, the beloved wife of Thomas Skinner who departed this life Nov 24th 1876 aged 56 years.
Two coaches containing relatives of Skinner, and Jane Jones, followed the coffin to the church, and after them walked "fifty or sixty persons, mostly of the fairer sex".
In December 1881, Ann was promised the house and valuables in due course by the police, and given an advance of £5 for mourning clothes and funeral arrangements.
