Gibbons’ First Apprentice (Drapers’ Company Bindings Book 1655-89)
Creator(s): Worshipful Company of Drapers
Date: Entry for 5 March 1672/3 (contained within Apprenticeship Bindings book dated 1655-89)
Accession Number: DR/FB4
Materials: Work on paper (book)
Location: Drapers’ Hall, Throgmorton Avenue, London EC2N 2DQ
Credit Line (copyright notice for material) : © The Drapers' Company
NOTES ON THE ARTWORK
As a ‘freeman’ Gibbons was able to take apprentices, a system regulated by the city’s livery companies. As early as March 1672/3, before his major royal and domestic commissions had even started to flow, Gibbons took his first apprentice, Edward Sherwood (son of Thomas, late of Abington, Berkshire). His name is recorded in this bindings book along with six others who followed at two to three-year intervals up to 1684, and two more a decade later. Having invested his knowledge and particular practices into their training, it is likely Gibbons retained these skilled carvers as the core of his growing workshop. Apart from their names recorded here, these men and their work remain otherwise obscure.
Further reading: David Esterly, ‘Grinling Gibbons and the Art of Carving’, V&A Publications, 1998, pgs 174-6.
Entry recording Gibbons taking his first apprentice, Edward Sherwood © The Drapers' Company
