William Thomas Stannard

STANNARD, William Thomas (1815-1895) — London

Printer and lithographer. Best known for his music covers, theatrical posters, etc., but Stannard also specialised in bird’s-eye view news maps, particularly of battlefields and theatres of war. Working first with Francis Dixon as “Stannard & Dixon”, he printed and published Thomas Packer, A panoramic view of the Gulf of Finland and the Baltic Sea, with the fortified places from the Aland Isles to St Petersburg 1855; Packer, A panoramic view of the town, harbour, forts & defences of Sebastopol & the siege works of the allied armies of England & France, etc. 1855; Packer, Birds eye view of the entrenched position of the allied armies of England & France before Sebastopol showing the present advanced state of the siege works 1855; Packer, A panoramic view of the external and internal defences of Sebastopol, the batteries, trenches and siege works of the allies 1855; Panoramic view of the north and south sides of the harbour & port of Sebastopol 1855; Packer, Panoramic view of the whole empire of Russia, in Europe & Asia, shewing the relative position of the seat of war 1855; Augustus Butler, A panoramic view of the sea of Azof, Kertch, Yenikale, Arabar, &c. shewing the position recently taken by the allies, likewise comprising the whole of the Crimea 1855; Stannard and Dixon’s Ordnance Map of India 1857; Stannard & Dixon’s panoramic view of the Indian Empire. The Indian Mutinies 1857; Stannard and Dixon’s panoramic birdseye view of the seat of war showing the kingdom of Sardinia with its principal cities 1859; Thomas Packer, Stannard & Dixon’s panoramic view of the positions of the Austrian & Franco-Sardinian armies 1859; Packer, Stannard & Dixon’s panoramic bird’s eye view of Lombardy & its fortresses, of Verona, Pavia, Mantua, Peschiera, Legnano, Lodi, Cremona, Pizzichetone, Padua, Como, Crema & its principal towns, lakes & railways 1859; Packer, Stannard and Dixon’s panoramic birds eye view of the seat of war showing the kingdom of Sardinia with its principal cities, roads, railways, fortresses & strategic defences 1859; Packer, Stannard & Dixon’s enlarged panoramic view of the fortresses, towns, railways & rivers in the immediate centre of hostilities in Italy 1859; Packer, The island of Sicily & the relative positions of Garibaldi’s & the Neapolitan troops 1860; Packer, Stannard & Dixon’s birds eye view of the north & south states of America shewing the seat of revolution 1861; with his son William as “Stannard & Son”, he produced Stannard and Son’s panoramic bird-eye view of France and Prussia and the surrounding countries likely to be involved in the war 1870; Alfred Concanen, Stannard & Son’s perspective view of the immediate seat of war [between France and Germany] and recent battle fields 1870; Packer & Griffin, Stannard & Son’s, panoramic birds-eye view, of Berlin & its defences, the principal Prussian ports on the Baltic, with Denmark and Schleswig Holstein 1870; Stannard & Son’s panoramic bird’s-eye view of the French and Prussian provinces on the banks of the Rhine 1870; Stannard & Son’s panoramic bird’s-eye view of the immediate seat of conflict of the French and Prussian Armies, and their positions, extending from the Rhine to the Meuse 1870; Concanen, Stannard & Son’s perspective view of Paris and fifteen miles round, shewing all the fortifications and redoubts, together with the lines of defence 1870; Concanen, Stannard & Son’s perspective view of Paris and its environs, shewing all the fortifications and redoubts, together with the lines of defence recently thrown up, and the roads, rivers and railways communicating with the interior 1870; Stannard & Son’s panoramic bird’s-eye view of Paris and its fortifications, and all the fortresses and strategic positions between the capital and Metz 1870; Concanen, Stannard & Son’s, perspective view of Ashantee & the whole of the Gold Coast 1873; Concanen, Stannard & Son’s perspective view of European and Asiatic Turkey, Russia, Austria and Persia showing the whole of the seaboard, railways, rivers and probable points of attack 1877; Concanen, Stannard & Son’s perspective view of the seat of war, from Adrianople to Constantinople, Gallipoli, the Bosphorrus and the Dardanelles 1878; Concanen, Stannard and Son’s perspective view of Afghanistan 1878; Concanen, Stannard & Son’s perspective view of the seat of war in South Africa 1879; Concanen, Stannard & Son’s perspective view of the seat of war in Egypt 1882.

Born in London and baptised 17 Dec 1815 at St. George the Martyr, Queen Square, the son of Thomas Stannard, a London postman, and his wife Lydia Rackham, of 18 Lucas Street, St. Pancras, who had married in 1807. Confusion arises between William Thomas Stannard and his contemporary William John Stannard, law stationer, born in Ipswich in 1813, who began to work in lithography in or about 1843 — with the latter working as “Stannard & Rae” of Gray’s Inn, and the former as “Stannard & Co.” or “Stannard & Dixon” from 1847, with Francis Dixon. William John Stannard produced “The art exemplar : a guide to distinguish one species of print from another with pictorial examples and written descriptions of every known style of illustration whether executed on gold, silver, brass” in or about 1859, listing 156 graphic processes, with examples, before retiring to Oxford where he lived under the name Harry Saunders until his death in 1880. William Thomas Stannard was in partnership with Dixon until Dixon retired 30 Jun 1868, at which point Stannard was joined by his son, William Stannard (1848-1895), trading as “Stannard & Son”, until that partnership too was formally dissolved 19 Nov 1891. Stannard had married Catherine Jane Bowskill (1821?-1887) at St. George Bloomsbury 26 Jul 1840. The couple initially lived in Somers Town, but by 1846 were living at the business premises in Poland Street, employing three journeymen and four apprentices by 1851. His son and future partner, the younger William Stannard, was born there in 1848. Stannard’s wife suffered from bouts of mental ill health and was admitted to asylums on a number of occasions in the years 1854 to 1860, and it was in 1856 that Stannard is thought to have had an illegitimate son, Edward Thornton Stannard Brickwell, with a woman named Eleanor Grace Brickwell. In 1861 the business was employing eight men and four boys and by 1870, if not earlier, the great Alfred Concanen had become the resident artist at the Poland Street workshop. Stannard is recorded at two quite different locations on the 1871 census return, maintaining separate domestic establishments, the family home in St. Pancras, where he was recorded as deaf, living with a daughter and his son, and at another home altogether in Battersea, with his mistress Selah Sands (1831?-1905) and her infant daughter, Emily Plympton Stannard (1870-1961). In December 1871, Stannard became the licensee of the Grove Tavern in Dulwich, in a joint venture with Selah Sands’ brother, Thomas Sands, a publican who became a co-licensee the following year. Stannard was assaulted by a man called W. Ernest Gaze in 1878 in a dispute over a settlement on Gaze’s wife, of which Stannard was a trustee — Stannard at that time described as a “map and music lithographer”. An argument with Camberwell Vestry over a drain also became a court matter in the same year. On the 1881 census return he is recorded living in Camberwell with Selah, by now employing twenty men and ten boys. An article in The Stage (14 Dec 1883) describes in detail a visit to Poland Street, giving an account of the processes of lithography and zincography, but by the following year the Stannard advertising laid stress on their new “steam colour” printing.  His wife died 19 July 1887 (“a loving mother, deeply mourned by two sorrowing daughters and an only son” — London Daily News, 20 July 1891) and Stannard promptly married his long-standing mistress. He died in Middlesex Hospital 23 Nov 1895, aged eighty, and was buried at Brompton 28 Nov 1895. His widow was granted probate 22 Feb 1896, his effects stated at £2,385.4s.5d. Details of a number of images copyrighted by Stannard and his son in 1881 are in the National Archives, as well as details of a copyright case brought against Thomas Wales Lee in 1870. A similar action for copyright infringement was taken against Edward Head of Red Lion Court in March 1873. Another legal case brought against Edward Harrison and Edward Viles in the same year is also recorded. Having left the partnership in 1891, the younger William Stannard predeceased his father, dying in a mental institution at Camberwell 7 Mar 1895, leaving a widow and daughter. The stock and goodwill, etc., of the business were sold off at auction in 1896.

— Dears Place, Somers Town (home) — 1841
7 Poland Street, Oxford Street — 1846-1895
— 25 Upper Albany Street, St Pancras (home) — 1861
— 211 Albany Street, St. Pancras (home) — 1866-1867
— 132 Camden Street, St. Pancras (home) — 1871
— 2 St. John’s Hill Terrace, Battersea (home) — 1871
— Plympton, Underhill Road, Camberwell (home) — 1878-1895

BBTI. BL (Evanion). BM. BNA. Census 1841-1891. COPAC. GL. LG. NA. Tooley. Twyman. V&A. Wakeman & Bridson.