Frederick John Nettlefold was the oldest son of Frederick Nettlefold, a businessman and patron of the arts. Like his father, Frederick John Nettlefold was an art lover. Throughout his life he donated paintings to many galleries around the UK, including the Glasgow Museums. Frederick John Nettlefold donated a number of oil paintings to the Kelvingrove Art Gallery, including works by Patrick Nasmyth, J. C. Ibbetson, Leon A. L’Hermitte, and Anton Mauve. He also donated a group of four paintings depicting the seasons by Marguerite Gerard. (1)
The Nettlefold family was an important part of British industrial history. At the start of the Industrial Revolution the Nettlefolds built up a company which is still in existence, known today as GKN or Guest, Keen and Nettlefold. John Sutton Nettlefold (1792 – 1866) opened a hardware shop at High Holborn, London in 1823. In 1826 he opened a workshop to make wood screws. This was followed by a second factory in Birmingham. He named the company Nettlefold and Sons. In 1854 Nettlefold bought a licence to manufacture a new type of wood screw from an American patent. He needed capital investment for this and brought in his brother in law, Joseph Chamberlain, as an equal partner. The company Nettlefold and Chamberlain was formed. They established further factories in Smethwick and Wolverhampton. The company was managed by both families. One of John Sutton Nettlefold’s sons was Frederick, the father of Frederick John Nettlefold. One of Joseph Chamberlain’s sons was Joseph Chamberlain, who eventually became a managing partner of the business with Frederick Nettlefold. (2) His sons were Neville Chamberlain (1869-1940), Prime minister from 1937-1940 and Austen Chamberlain (1863-1937) (3,4)
Frederick Nettlefold married Mary Warren. They had three children, Frederick John, Mary and Archibald. Frederick Nettlefold was involved in the family business throughout his life. After Joseph Chamberlain left the business, it reverted to using only the Nettlefold name, and was run by Frederick and his brother Joseph. By 1880, the company had grown and Frederick remained Chairman of the company from 1881 – 1893. From 1890, Frederick also took an interest in the silk manufacturing company of Samuel Courtauld. His mother-in-law was both the cousin and sister-in-law of Samuel Courtauld. Frederick Nettlefold was the Chairman of Samuel Courtaulds and Co between 1910 and 1913 and from 1913 to 1927 theChairman of Courtaulds Ltd. (5)
Frederick Nettlefold was a known collector of art and after his death in 1913, his art collection was auctioned at Christie’s. News of the sale was reported by the New York Times amongst others. The sale raised a large amount of money. (6)
Frederick John Nettlefold studied at Corpus Christi, Oxford and later at Heidelberg and Berlin Universities. He was involved in the Nettlefold company and other businesses for much of his life, both in the UK and abroad but was also variously an actor manager in a number of theatres, president of a football club and a trainer of racehorses. He was a patron of the arts and an art collector. He was a director of Courtaulds for 38 years, so he obviously carried on the family involvement with the company. He was also chairman of a number of other companies, including a lighting company, a petroleum company and a gold mining syndicate in Kenya. He was president of Crystal Palace Football club from 1933 to 1938. (7)
Frederick John Nettlefold began his theatrical career as an actor in the Opera Comique in 1893. He worked with Kate Vaughan’s repertory company between 1898 and 1899. He was the actor manager of the Scala Theatre in London from 1919 -1922 and also worked as actor manager at the Apollo, London. There is little evidence of his accomplishments as an actor. However, on one occasion he sued a critic for a bad review. The play was Othello and the critic had reviewed the performance and published his review before the play was staged. The judge found in Mr Nettlefold’s favour, although the finding rested on the advance publication rather than the fairness of the review. (8)
Frederick John Nettlefold married three times. He married women involved with the theatre. His first marriage in 1907 was to Ellen Maud Redgrave m.s. Pratt. He worked with the actress, whose stage name was Judith Kyrle, at the Scala Theatre in London. They acted together in a number of productions. She was a wealthy farmer’s daughter. She had previously been married to Roy Redgrave, the founding father of the Redgrave acting dynasty. She had three children, John Kyrle Redgrave born 1895, Robin Roy Redgrave born 1897 and Nellie Maud Redgrave born 1898. The census of 1911 shows two of her children living with her and F.J. Nettlefold. The marriage lasted until her death in 1922 at the age of 50. There is no evidence of any children of this marriage. Mr Nettlefold retired from the theatre in the year of his wife’s death. (9)
His second marriage was to Lucy Eleanor Louisa Atcherley, an actress who was thirty years younger than him. They met at the Scala Theatre in 1919, where Mr Nettlefold was staging and acting in the play, The Lady of Lyons. The principal roles were played by Frederick John Nettlefold and his first wife Ellen. Lucy Atcherley also played a minor role in this play. After the run ended, Lucy Atcherley moved on to work with other stage companies in Britain and South Africa. She returned from South Africa in June 1922 and became reacquainted with Frederick John Nettlefold, whose wife had died in March of that year. They married within weeks. In December 1922, Frederick John set off for Bombay, with the agreement that Lucy would follow him in February 1923. Frederick waited at his shooting lodge in Ceylon, but Lucy never arrived, having met a diplomat on route to Baghdad and gone with him to that country. They divorced in 1924. (10)
His third marriage in 1925 was to Johanna Veronique Waterson Graaff. She was an opera singer. There were three children from the marriage, Mary April, born 1926, Frederick, born 1927, and Dorothy Anne, born 1931. This marriage, though longer lasting than his second, ended in 1944 after his wife left him for the composer Albert Coates. (11)
Frederick John Nettlefold kept careful records of his collections, publishing a series of guides to them in collaboration with a number of authors.(12) (13) He took a particular interest in Martinware.
The four Martin brothers were early pioneers in the production of studio pottery in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Their ceramics were eccentric, but have stood the test of time and are still highly collectible today. The brothers made little money from their pottery and lived in poverty. They apparently could only afford to fire up their kiln once a year. In 1978 an exhibition of their work was held in Sotheby’s in London, followed by a New York exhibition in 1981. In 2019 two of their stoneware bird jars sold for £26,000 and £28,000 respectively. (14)
In 1963 one of the Nettlefold donations was stolen from the Kelvingrove Art Gallery. The painting was one of the four seasons paintings entitled Winter by Marguerite Gerard. At 1.15 p.m on 2 December 1963 the theft was discovered on the screen wall in the main French Gallery. The attendant who came on duty at 1p.m. was making a routine check of his beat and discovered the theft. The attendant on duty between 12.00 and 1.00 p.m. had noticed nothing amiss. The glass on the pictures had been cleaned between 11.15 and 11.30 a.m. The painting has never been found. Doubts had been expressed about the attribution of the four paintings, and in 1967 it was suggested that they be reattributed as Unknown, French (early nineteenth Century), Pastiche in the style of Fragonard. (15)
Frederick John Nettlefold died in 1949. His obituaries noted his support for the London Symphony Orchestra, and his gift of art works to the National Gallery and the Tate in London and over sixty provincial galleries. He had led a very privileged and colourful life, throughout which he maintained a devotion to the arts in all their forms. Glasgow was a beneficiary of that devotion. (16)
References
- Glasgow Corporation Minutes November 1947 to May 1948 p. 495
2. Grace’s Guide gracesguide.co.uk. Nettlefold and Sons accessed 14/03/22. Nettlefold and Chamberlain accessed 14/03/22
3. NICHOLAS, David, CHAMBERLAIN Joseph in: Loades, David. (2003) Readers Guide to British History. London,Routledge
4. Wikipedia : Joseph Chamberlain accessed 14/03/22
5. Grace’s Guide gracesguide.co.uk Frederick Nettlefold accessed 24/03/2022
6. New York Times 6 June 1913
7. The News 10 November 1950
8. The Era 22 December 1920
Pall Mall Gazette 16 December 1920
9. Gloucestershire Echo 26 November 1949
10. Atcherley Family Website: atcherley.org.uk accessed 24/3/2022
11. Lincolnshire Echo 21 November 1944
12. Grundy Reginald (1933-1938) A Catalogue of the Pictures and Drawings in the collection of Frederick John Nettlefold, 4 Volumes London, Bemrose and Sons
13. Forrer,R. (1934) The Collection of Bronzes and Castings in Brass and Ormolu formed by FJ Nettlefold . London, Waterlow and Sons
14. Beard, Charles R (1936) A Catalogue of the Collection of Martinware formed by Mr F J Nettlefold together with a short history of the firm of R W Martin and Brothers of Southall. London, Waterlow and Sons
15. Object File GMRC
16 The Stage 1 December 1949. The Liverpool Echo 26 November 1949
Other Sources:
The Stage: May 15 1930
The News (Norwood) 10 February 1950
Frederick John Nettlefold, by George Hillyard Swinstead
Glasgow Museums Art Donors Group 