Joseph Gillott and the rise of the collector-dealer

Abstract

Middle-class art collectors like Joseph Gillott (1799–1872) were part of a new and significant trend in the art market in Great Britain that began to take shape and increase during the middle part of the nineteenth century. With new wealth, prestige and political power that coincided with political reforms in Great Britain, some middle-class businessmen began to treat contemporary British artworks as financial investments.

These men were entrepreneurs who had made their money in business and possessed a different, more merchant-like manner of perceiving art than most of the aristocratic collectors who had previously dominated the art market. This new class of art investors began to surpass the aristocracy in both purchases and commissions. This thesis treats the pen manufacturer and great art collector Joseph Gillott as emblematic of an emerging pattern in the art market. By examining Gillott’s collection of paintings (as well as the collections of others who behaved similarly), the context in which he lived, and his use of art as a speculative tool, this thesis explores and analyses a substantial change in the British art market: one in which contemporary works of art began to be regularly used for money-making ventures by people who did not work primarily as art dealers. Gillott and men like him caused a major transition in how contemporary art is thought of and treated; they played a role in creating an important trait of the modern art market by converting otherwise ‘priceless’ works into investments.