William Dickes

A brief profile of William Dickes

William Dickes was born on May 7th, 1815 in Beechencliff, near Bath.

He was taken to London at an early age and later became apprenticed to Robert Branston, a pupil of Thomas Bewick.  He was a student in the Royal Academy Schools, where his drawings gained him silver medals.

In the early 1840's Dickes married Miss Bloomfield and in 1843, their first son William Frederick was born. The marriage eventually produced a total of six sons and three daughters.

Robert Cavell commissioned Dickes to superintend the wood engravings for the Abbotsford Edition of Scott's Waverly Novels and in 1846 Dickes opened an office at Salisbury Square, Fleet Street, London.  Three years later, he moved within London to Crescent Place, Bridge Street, Blackfriars.

Very little work can be found from Dickes early addresses.  It was not until 1851 when he again relocated with London, to 5 Old Fish Street, that business appears to have taken off.  He exhibited at the major exhibitions in London, Paris and Dublin, and was awarded prize medals at the Paris Exhibition in 1855 and the London International Exhibition in 1862.

William Dickes acquired a license to the Baxter process but also produced colour prints by his own Chromograph process and by Chromolithography.  He produced a lot of work for the Society for Promotion of Christian Knowledge and the Religious Tract Society.

Later, William Dickes took his two elder sons into partnership and acquired premises at 109 Farringdon Road.  When Dickes retired to Brixton in 1878, the business practically ceased.  He died on February 29th, 1892 aged 76.