- Daler-Rowney
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Daler-Rowney Ltd 
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Type Limited Industry Art Materials Industry Founded 1983 Founder(s) George Rowney & Daler Family Headquarters Bracknell, United Kingdom Area served Worldwide Key people Patrick Giraud (CEO) Products Colours, Brushes, Papers, Drawing Media, Canvases, Boards, Easels, Artists accessories Website daler-rowney.com Daler-Rowney is a fine art materials manufacturer based in Bracknell, United Kingdom. It sells a wide range of artist products such as paints, artist surfaces, brushes and a range of accessories.
Contents
History
In 1783, Richard and Thomas Rowney opened premises in central London where they started selling perfumes and wig powder, which was the beginning of the Rowney Company. As the fashion for wigs soon changed, the Rowney brothers re-focused their talent and concentrated on producing artists' colours. The idea was successful and they soon began supplying famous artists such as Constable and Turner. In 1837, the company became known as George Rowney & Company when Thomas’s son, George Rowney, took over the firm.
George Rowney & Company relocated many times during the 19th and 20th centuries and achieved many improvements in the manufacture and production of oil and watercolour throughout this time. In 1963, Rowney was the first manufacturer in Europe to introduce an artist’s acrylic colour, under the brand name Cryla. In 1969, the company moved out of central London to its present address and headquarters in Bracknell.
The business had passed through generations of the Rowney family. Tom Rowney was the final Managing Director from within the Rowney family. Having no family successor for the company, he looked for a buyer. In 1969, a majority holding was sold to the Morgan Crucible Company and then in 1983, the year of Rowney’s bicentenary, the company was sold on to the Daler Board Company.
The Daler Board Company was established in 1946 by the Daler family. On his return from a German prison camp, Terry Daler founded a sign writing business together with his brother Ken and brother-in-law Arthur. During the Second World War, shop signs along the southern coastal towns of England had been painted out so that invading Germans would not know where they were. As a result, their business thrived in the years that followed the end of the war as shop signs were re-painted. The war also led to supply shortages of canvases. To compensate for this, Arthur created a new type of surface for oil painting that pulled the thick oil colour off the brush. Cardboard was sealed and primed through a mesh (believed to have been a kitchen net curtain) which when removed left a perfectly textured surface. This substitute soon became a commercialised product: the “Daler Board”.
Between 1945 and 1960, Daler developed a variety of products such as pads (including the Red and Yellow Series A that is still part of the range), canvas panels, stretched canvases, mountboards and artist’s luggage. In 1975, they introduced the first synthetic brush to the artists material market: the Dalon brush. It became the first real rival to the sable brush for over 100 years. In 1983, the Daler Board Company purchased the George Rowney Company to become Daler-Rowney Limited as it is known today.
In 1988, the company established distribution offices in Cranbury, New Jersey, USA and in 1994 “Robert Simmons”, the premier brand of artist’s brushes, was bought to complete the offer of artists materials offered to the market. In 2006, Daler-Rowney acquired the US brand Cachet, one of the market leaders in hardback books.[1]
Colours
The company manufactures all three main types of artists’ paint (oil colour, acrylic colours and watercolours), each having three or four ranges, from its colour factory in Bracknell. Every range offers a large number of colours (up to 90 colours) which mirrors the selection needed by the artist in that specific category. Quality and price differs in the various ranges depending on what type of artist it is intended for.
Daler-Rowney produces four oil colour ranges: Artists’ Oil Colour, Georgian Oil Colour, Graduate Oil Colour and Simply Oil Colour.
Acrylics have become increasingly popular as they offer a more flexible and easier use compared to oils and watercolours. Artists’ favour them because they dry quickly and are water-soluble, yet they become water-resistant once dried, allowing for layers to be built up. Cryla, the artist quality acrylic range, is completed by System 3 (Original and Heavy Body), Graduate Acrylics and Simply Acrylics.
In watercolours, Daler-Rowney offers three ranges of colour: Artists Watercolours, Aquafine and Simply Watercolours. Artists’ Watercolour is known as a professional quality watercolour which is formulated to present both performance and permanence, using only the very best pigments, while the Aquafine range is aimed at students and leisure painters.
The company also manufactures or sells four different kinds of inks (Calli Calligraphy Ink, FW Acrylic Ink, FW Pearlescent Acrylic Ink and Kandahar drawing Ink), pastels (hard, soft and oil pastels) and pencils (sketching, pastel, watercolour pencils). Daler-Rowney is one of only two manufacturers in the world who still produce the historical medium Egg Tempera and also produces other niche colour ranges such as Designers Gouache and Water Soluble Block Printing Ink.
Surfaces
Daler-Rowney has developed a wide selection of surfaces suitable for a variety of techniques and mediums. All paper products are transformed in the Daler-Rowney factory in Wareham, Dorset, United Kingdom.
Daler-Rowney’s portfolio of surfaces gives the artist a wide choice of sizes and formats such as blocks, pads, loose sheets, hardback books or even spirals. The range includes a comprehensive selection of watercolour paper with various textures (rough, medium grain, smooth), weights, sizes and formats, available throughout the ranges The Langton Prestige, The Langton, Bockingford and Aquafine. A selection of coloured paper is available in the Canford, Ingres and Murano ranges.
The range of sketching books and pads is extensive, including the Cachet range which offers a selection of fashionable sketchbooks, the Graduate sketchbook value range and pads for different drawing techniques. Daler-Rowney also sells a wide selection of pre-primed canvases, suitable for both oil and acrylic painting.
Daler-Rowney has a well established range of mount boards used by framers, artists and illustrators worldwide. The range includes five different types of core and comes in a variety of surface colours.
Brushes
Daler-Rowney offers a wide choice of brush types, shapes and sizes to meet the needs of every artist. In the USA, all brushes are sold under the Robert Simmons name, a well established brush brand in this market. In the rest of the world all brushes are sold under the Daler-Rowney brand and some of the ranges include Aquafine, Georgian, Sapphire, Bristlewhite and Cryla.
Accessories
In addition to its colours, surfaces and brushes Daler-Rowney sells a range of necessary art accessories. These include easels, portfolios and presentation cases, mount cutters, palette knives, etc.
Headquarters and Manufacturers
The Daler-Rowney Head Office is located in Bracknell, Berkshire, in the South East of England. The company moved from central London to its present address and headquarters in Bracknell in 1969. Daler-Rowney has offices in the USA, Cranbury, New Jersey and in Europe, France and Belgium. The process of manufacturing is divided into 3 different sites: the colours are produced at the headquarters, in Bracknell; the brushes are manufactured in La Romana, Dominican Republic; and all paper products are transformed in Wareham, United Kingdom.
References
External links
Categories:- Art materials brands
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