Heraldic

Scope and Content

A collection of small and medium size sketches featuring heraldic emblems and motifs and including a number bearing the stamps of James Templeton & Co. and A.F. Stoddard & Co., some designs by J.G. Crace, Hélène Gallet and R. McDonald Scott, and some designs featuring Glasgow's coat of arms.

Administrative / Biographical History

John Gregory Crace (26 May 1809 – 13 August 1889) was an English interior decorator and author.The Crace family had been prominent London interior decorators since Edward Crace (1725–1799), later keeper of the royal pictures to George III, established a business in 1768. John Gregory Crace, Edward Crace's great-grandson, was the elder of two surviving sons of Frederick Crace (1779–1859), interior decorator to the then Prince Regent and a collector of maps and prints. Crace commenced work as an assistant to his father in 1825, assisting on commissions from George IV on Windsor Castle and Buckingham Palace. In 1830, at the age of only twenty-one, he became a full partner in the family business (thereafter known as Frederick Crace & Son), on inheriting property and capital from his mother, who had died in 1827. He visited the Continent several times between 1825 and 1830, including an extended study tour of France and Germany in 1829, and became influenced by 18th-century French decorative arts. His eldest son, John Dibblee Crace (1838–1919), followed him into the family business, taking on the responsibility of managing the firm when Crace's health broke down in 1854–5; the two retained a close working relationship. Another son, Everard Crace, became a silk weaver.