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A different picture of Charles Horner
In the last post I said I would post something that showed another side to Charles Horner.
For those of you familiar with his jewellery, it will come as no surprise that he was something of an artist too. You will probably have gathered by now that Charles Henry Horner (i.e. CH the 2nd) was my Mum's grandfather and as a result I have a couple of watercolours. Sadly I have little info about these pictures, so deductive reasoning comes to the fore:
So this is the first one (next one in next post). It's a lovely thing, beautifully composed and in muted colours showing, at an educated guess, Halifax. It's dominated by the chimneys of the Mills, and in real life gives a wonderful affectionate feel for that smoky cityscape. It is signed in the left-hand corner with the typical CH monogram and dated '62.
As for the artist: Charles Horner senior's dates are 1837-1892, whilst junior was not born until 1870 and died in 1949. This means that CH#1 would have been about 25 or so when this was painted, and CH#2 didn't do a '62 in either century so it can't have been him.
There are no records of any other artists in the family line, and no reason why my mother should have inherited from anyone else, whilst it is entirely logical that she would have something from her grandfather, via her mother. So it is, by deduction, a piece by Charles Horner (CH#1) himself. It is a barely a sketch really, a delightful piece. And, as a bonus, he shows his workings on the back:
This photograph is a bit faint, but you can see his first attempt at the outlines in pencil, and then working out the main colours.
The paper and everything is right for the date and so I am convinced that this is a work by Charles Horner of 1862 at around the time he was starting out in business and making name for himself as a silversmith and maker of watch cases.
In the next entry I'll show you another watercolour
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