Thomas, The Victoria & The Kilpack Connection

A summer holiday to Guernsey let us look closer at the life of Thomas Brooks, son of John Brooks and brother to Vincent.

Thomas was born in 1818 in Oxford Street, London. By the 1841 census he is a publisher living near Regents Park. In 1844 he marries Letitia Kilpack of 41/42 King Street, Covent Garden. Seven years later his brother Vincent Brooks would move his lithography business next door to number 40.

Letitia was daughter of Thomas, a tobacconist, and half-sister to Sarah Louise Kilpack -more of her later.

The census of 1851 records Thomas and Letitia living at 6 Gloucester Gardens, St.Pancras. This time Thomas, like his father, is a stationer. By 1861 they are in Jersey. By 1871 they are running the Victoria Hotel, St.Peter Port, Guernsey. Thomas, as well as Hotelier, is listed as a merchant.

From looking through the local almanacks at the Priaulx Library we found Thomas and Letitia at the hotel from 1867 to 1880. 1867 was the year of Thomas's father's death, which may have funded the purchase of the hotel. Thomas died in February 1881. Two months later, in the 1881 census, Letitia is back boarding in St.Helier, Jersey and ends up back in Hackney, London until her death in 1907.

Many biographies quote Letitia's artistic sister Sarah Louise Kilpack as visiting her friend Letitia Brooks in the channel islands. As we have now seen, this was actually her half-sister.
Thomas's father, John Brooks, had started visiting Jersey in the 1830's and from the early forties settled as a wholesale stationer and paper merchant. His eldest son Vincent stayed in London, Thomas followed sometime after, whilst youngest daughter Harriet although London born is recorded in a diary as christened in St. Aubins Church May 13th, 1841.

E.McKnight Kauffer Posters

When researching the history of Vincent Brooks Day and Son you soon find the many stunning posters from the hay-day of the art form during the twenties and thirties. Of the many top graphic designers patronised by the likes of Frank Pick of London Underground and Jack Beddington of Shell was Edward McKnight Kauffer.

I recently found a copy of 'E.McKnight Kauffer: a designer and his public' by Mark Haworth-Booth in the local library.  It's an interesting read coupled of course by Kauffer's great art works.

Power -The Nerve Centre of London's Underground 1931
E.McKnight Kauffer, Vincent Brooks, Day & Son

Of particular interest to this blog was a 1937 quote by Kauffer, 'Lithography still tends to be commercially practical for reproduction and most of my posters are done by an old firm still using in most cases actual lithographic stone'. It was only three years later that, when being wound up, Vincent Brooks Day and Son was described as having 'somewhat ancient type of plant'. So maybe using traditional stones was not so commercially practical after all! The story in the family is that, after the firm was acquired, Wilfred Vincent Brooks ended up furnishing his Mill Hill home with a patio of lithographic stones.

Stonehenge - See Britain First on Shell 1931
E.McKnight Kauffer, Vincent Brooks, Day & Son

The books also mentions the talents of Thomas Edgar Griffits and how he must of overseen the translation of many of Kauffer's pieces from paper to lithographed reproduction. Again, the firm's efforts to look after and develop their staff paid dividends in the business that Griffits must of attracted.  

Psalm Thing Beautiful

We came across this beautiful little book while browsing the internet today. Reportedly published by Vincent Brooks Day and Son in the late 1860's, it is Psalm 104 illustrated by Susan Maria Farington of Leyland in Lancashire. Fully extended the book opens up to three and a half meters long.

Fully details are on the wonderful Chetham Library site which container many other intriguing items.
http://chethamslibrary.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/how-manifold-are-thy-works.html