S is for Scowerer
By RIDLEY, ?H[enry] , 1823
£250
BUY

H. Ridley Silk, Linen & Woollen, Dyer & Scowerer, ... All kinds of Silks & Satins, Ladies Gowns, Bed Furniture &c. Clean’d Dyed. & Glazed in the neatest. Manner. Gentlemen’s Clothes, Carpets, & Blankets Cleaned

Ephemera
  • Author: RIDLEY, ?H[enry]
  • Publication place: London
  • Publisher: 15 Gray's Inn Lane, Holborn
  • Publication date: ?[c1823].
  • Physical description: Engraved trade card.
  • Dimensions: 80 by 60mm (3.25 by 2.25 inches).
  • Inventory reference: 17898

Notes

The present trade card shows an angelic robed woman bearing a pipe in one hand and in the other a unfurled scroll advertising the fabric dyeing, cleaning and scouring services of H. Ridley. ‘Kent’s Original London Directory’ of 1823 lists a Henry Ridley of Holborn as a “currier & leather cutter”, as does the London Post Office Directory of 1843. Apart from these, however, there seems to be no record of any other Ridley active in the textile industry in the same area, nor is there are evidence of either Ridley or a fabric service operating from 15 Gray’s Inn Lane.

According to Henry Benjamin Wheatley’s ‘London, Past and Present’ (1891), “Gray’s Inn Lane was cleared away in 1879-1880 by the Metropolitan Board of Works, under the provision of the Artisans’ and Labourers’ Dwellings Act, and the roadway widened”. This provides a terminus ante quam for Ridley’s business, and the general style of the engraving supports an operating period during the nineteenth century.

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