LEE, Thomas Wales (1833-1910) — London
Artist, printer & lithographer. Produced Military topographical view of the strongholds of Lombardy 1859 — with Alfred Concanen; T. W. Lee’s view of the seat of war: showing the Rhine, France, Prussia and surrounding countries 1870. Known especially for music covers, theatrical posters, etc.
Born in London 5 May 1833 and baptised at All Souls Marylebone, 26 May 1833 — the son of William Lee, cabinet-maker (later a house-agent and auctioneer), and his wife Mary, of Cleveland Street. Served an apprenticeship with the lithographic artist Thomas Packer. He married Maria Reeve (1835-1929), the daughter of an innkeeper, 28 Jul 1860, at St. Mary Newington. A partnership as lithographers in Frith Street, Soho, with the famous Alfred Concanen as “Concanen & Lee”, later “Concanen, Lee & Siebe”, with the addition of Henry Herapath Siebe (1832-1887), was dissolved 25 Feb 1865. Lee and Concanen apparently fell out so badly that, after Concanen’s death in 1886, his daughter destroyed every drawing that had Lee’s name on it. Following the rift, Lee set up independently, soon advertising for a stone grainer — “a strong active young man to make himself generally useful” (Clerkenwell News, 29 Sep 1865). In 1869-1870 he was advertising himself as a “theatrical lithographer” — “Theatrical show cards, posters, portraits, etc. … Lithographer to the Theatres Royal, Drury-lane, Lyceum, Princess’s, Olympic, Adelphi, St. James’s, Queen’s, Prince of Wales, Royalty, Surrey, Sadler’s Wells, Astley’s, Royal Alfred, New Standard; Christy Minstrels; Canterbury, Oxford, and Royal Music Halls; and nearly all the provincial theatres and music halls. Studio and printing works — Grosvenor Mews, Bond-street, London W. Designs, sketches, and estimates sent to any part of the world” (The Era, 5 Dec 1869). He was sued over a copyright infringement by William Thomas Stannard in 1870 concerning their rival panoramic views of the seat of the Franco-Prussian War (papers in National Archives). Stannard was initially granted an injunction, but this was lifted after Lee’s lawyer successfully argued that the Stannard view had not been registered at Stationers’ Hall (see C&C). After their marriage, Lee and his wife had moved to Clapham and by 1871 had two daughters and a son — Lee at that time employing three men and four boys. He went bankrupt in 1873 and needed to effect a liquidation by arrangement or composition with his creditors, but he was also by this time a “well known and much respected mason”, producing a vellum testimonial for a masonic lodge in West Croydon in 1875 (Croydon Advertiser, 13 Mar 1875). By 1881, Lee was employed as the manager of a tavern in Delamere Crescent, Paddington, living on the premises with his wife, two sons and two daughters. Ten years later, he was recorded as a licensed victualler in Westminster, but by 1895 was once more a lithographic artist, working on his own account. He died 8 Jul 1910 and probate was granted to his widow Maria 20 Aug 1910 — his effects stated at £141.14s.8d.
— 37 Manor Street, Clapham (home) — 1861-1874
12 Frith Street, Soho — 1865
65A Castle Street, Oxford Street — 1865
Grosvenor Mews, Bond Street — 1866-1875
Between 77 & 78 Lower Grosvenor Street, Bond Street — 1867
61 High Street, Bloomsbury — 1875
— 22 Middleton Road, Battersea Rise (home) — 1879
44 Wardour Street, Soho
Delamere Crescent, Paddington — 1881
2 York Street, Westminster — 1889-1891
9 Argyll Street — 1894
— 23 Manor Street, Clapham (home) — 1894
139 Oxford Street — 1895
13 Westcroft Square, Hammersmith — 1900-1906
— 64 Chiswick Lane (home) — 1910
BL (Evanion). BM. BNA. C&C. Census 1841, 1861-1901. LG. LHD. NA. Tooley. V&A.