George Tinworth

George Tinworth (November 5, 1843 – September 10, 1913 ["Who's Who 1916", xxiv] ) was a ceramic artist.

Born at 6 Milk Street, Walworth Common, South London, England, Tinworth was the son of a greengrocer turned wheelwright and the family suffered extreme poverty. He may have been aware of the Chartist meeting and subsequent enclosure of nearby Kennington Park (then a common) in 1852. Brought up to follow in his father's footsteps, he spent his spare time carving off-cuts and soon showed a precocious talent for art. At nineteen he pawned his overcoat to pay for a set of evening classes at the local Lambeth School of Art in Kennington Park Road. In the same year of his life he created the magnificent 'The Mocking of Christ', which is now on show at the Cuming Museum on the Walworth Road, Southwark.

"Although at the height of his fame he was visited regularly by royalty, leading members of church and state, and distinguished literary figures and the most prominent critics, he remained close to his humble origins in speech and thought." [Peter Rose, "George Tinworth", CDN, 1982, p 11]

From the Lambeth School of Art (still going strong as [http://www.cityandguildsartschool.ac.uk/ The City & Guilds of London Art School] ) he went on to the Royal Academy art school in 1864, winning various medals for his work. After the Royal Academy he got a job at Royal Doulton, the famous Lambeth pottery manufacturer, in 1866. It was at this point that Doulton started producing art pottery with George Tinworth as their main designer. His father died in 1867 so he was left as the main supporter of his mother and family.

At Doulton, he produced vases, jugs, humorous figures and animals and larger pieces. The Cuming Museum contains three examples of his life-sized clay heads and a terracotta scene entitled "The Jews making bricks under Egyptian Taskmasters". This last was presented to the museum by Doulton and Co in 1914 as a memorial to Tinworth. They seem not to have recognised that it could be interpreted as an allegory of the exploitation of his fellow clayworkers.

Many of his pieces were shown at the Royal Academy where they were admired by John Ruskin, amongst others. The first to be exhibited there in the year he joined the school was a group of children fighting called "Peace and Wrath in Low Life". A large scale terracotta fountain, "The Fountain of Life", was donated to Kennington Park by Henry Doulton in 1872 (or 1869?). This was vandalised in the 1980s and The Friends of the Park are seeking funding for its restoration.

Other pieces by Tinworth are to be found in the Lambeth-based Museum of Garden History, adjacent to the main entrance of St Bede's College, Manchester, in the panel above the entrance to the former Doulton Works in Black Prince Road, Lambeth, the Baptist Chapel in Wraysbury ["The Doulton Lambeth Wares", Desmond Eyles and Louise Irvine: Richard Dennis, Shepton Beauchamp, 2002, p49.] and in Truro Cathedral, Cornwall.

The Cuming Museum has Tinworth's major independent art project in storage. This is a four-foot high model of a project for an elaborate memorial to Southwark's connection with Shakespeare, made in 1904. Enough public donations were never achieved to realise it. Though this was Tinworth's most ambitious autonomous art project, he also made a number of complex figure compositions in relief, including "The Release of Barabas" and "Saul attacking David".

The Southwark Local Studies Archive [ [http://www.24hourmuseum.org.uk/museum_gfx_en/AM23462.html Southwark Local Studies Library - 24 Hour Museum - official guide to UK museums, galleries, exhibitions and heritage ] at www.24hourmuseum.org.uk] has his manuscript (and unpublished) autobiography.

Notes

Reading

* Rose, Peter. "George Tinworth", Harriman-Judd Collection, Vol 1. CDN Corps, USA, 1982 (including a chronology of principal works compiled by Desmond Eyles).