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William Sharpington

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Not to be confused with William Sharington.

William Sharpington
Picture of a man wearing a bowler hat
Sharpington working on lettering at the Adelphi in 1951[1]
Born1900
Kennington, London, England[2]
Died1973 (aged 72–73)
Downe, London, England[3]
OccupationLettering artist
EmployerCity and Guilds of London Art School
Spouse
Claire Sharpington[4]
​
​
(m. 1933)​
[5]

William Sharpington[a] (1900–1973) was a British lettering artist who worked in sign painting and the design of monuments.[8][9][10][11][12][b] In the view of John Nash and Gerald Fleuss, his workshop "produced, from the 40s to the 60s, some of the most distinguished public lettering in England".[14]

Early life

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Memorial to John Collis Browne, Ramsgate[15]

The son of a baker, Sharpington studied at the City and Guilds of London Art School and started his career working as an assistant in the workshop of Percy Delf Smith from about 1920 to 1935.[2][16] He then set up his own practice which continued through the post-war period.[6][17] At the time it was normal to use custom painted or carved lettering for large signs because of the inflexibility of printing large fonts using letterpress,[18] before the arrival of large-size printing technologies like vinyl sign cutters and computer fonts.[19]

Career

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Delf Smith and his teacher Edward Johnston, influenced by the Arts and Crafts movement, had established a style of fine lettering rooted in Roman square capitals which had quickly become a standard for prestigious lettering like monuments and memorials.[20] Sharpington also worked in this style, with use of italics, calligraphy and swashes.[16][c] Nick Garrett, a modern signwriter, comments that "I had worked alongside his lettering in the House of Lords some years earlier and they left such a lasting impression ... Sharpington's work is of course notably classical, yet each letter was made from his own passion for calligraphic rendering. The structures are strongly reminiscent of the original Trajan (Roman) and Jensen (Venetian) inspirational characters"[9] and that Sharpington's style "is very different to the Italian Trajan style. It has a calligraphic voice crafted around its cultural and architectural context."[23]

Lettering examples by Sharpington are held by the Crafts Study Centre.[24][25]

Sharpington designed lettering art such as memorials and painted signs himself, but generally drew out art for others to cut into stone.[15] He taught and had his workshop at the City and Guilds of London Art School[16] and was a member of the Art Workers' Guild.[26] His assistants and subcontractors included Kenneth Breese,[16][27] Ron Burnett,[28] Bob DuVivier[29] and Donald Jackson[13][d] and his pupils included Michael Renton,[30][31] Vera Ibbett[32] and Stephen Lubell, whose article on him made with Burnett's assistance is one of the main sources on his life.[33]

Sharpington was a Freemason in a lodge with Oliver, and later with Jackson.[13] He died in 1973 and was commemorated with a plaque at St Bride's Church, a former client.[28][34]

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Legacy

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Much of Sharpington's artwork was painted or made of wood and ephemeral, like signs for London County Council for schools and vaccination clinics[5][16] (even as mundane as a "No Parking" sign to go at the entrance to a North London park).[14] As a result, much of it no longer exists: by 1989 Dr. John Nash[35][36][37] commented that "much of the beautiful work done by Sharpington's workshop during the Fifties is now gone".[8][3][e] (Giving a memorial lecture to Delf Smith in 1946, M. C. Oliver commented that Sharpington "specializes in painted lettering of fine quality".[6]) In addition, tastes changed and the practice of signwriting declined after his career, meaning his work was often not replaced with similar designs.[2]

However, photographs exist of some of his lost work[17][14][40] and other examples survive which were made of stone or kept indoors in protected locations such as government buildings and churches.[10][17] The Diocese of Southwark archives list correspondence with him on various projects.[41]

Extant work

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Notes

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  1. ^ Sharpington was sometimes called W. H. Sharpington.[6][7] His middle name is not stated in sources.
  2. ^ Sharpington preferred the term "lettering artist" to describe his work, rather than "sign writing", feeling that the term did not do lettering work due credit, something both Jackson and DuVivier independently remembered about him when interviewed separately.[13][3]
  3. ^ His Collis Browne memorial uses a capital-form q in lower-case italic, a style used in renaissance calligraphy[21] and by some twentieth-century Arts and Crafts artists, it is used for example in Jamie Smith's English Engravers typeface.[22]
  4. ^ Interviewed years later for an oral history project, Jackson commented that Sharpington tended to charge prices that were too low: "he just didn't have a feel for what it ought to be ... he realised that the best thing to do was to give me the job and I was to give him the cut so I would get straight to the client".[13]
  5. ^ A signboard Lubell reproduces that Sharpington created for a toll road at Alleyn's College survives but the lettering has been replaced; it is not the same as in Burnett's photograph.[38][39]
  6. ^ Surrey County Council's website on the memorial credits Sharpington among other artists, but does not state which work he did. The memorial was dedicated in 1921, before Sharpington had set up his own practice, but rededicated in 1951 after the Second World War.[45] According to Marian Mollett of the Richmond Local History Society the entire monument in its current form is his work as it was replaced in 1955.[46]

References

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  1. ^ Hampton, J. A. (4 June 2008). "Mr W. Sharpington begins work on a memorial inscription at the Adelphi in London". Getty Images. Retrieved 28 August 2023.
  2. ^ a b c Nash 1989, p. 13.
  3. ^ a b c Nash 1989, p. 15.
  4. ^ "Mrs Claire Sharpington Painting A Plaque Designed By Her Husband For A Building Which Stands On The Site Of The Former Adelphi Terrace". Shutterstock. Retrieved 28 August 2023.
  5. ^ a b Nash 1989, p. 14.
  6. ^ a b c Oliver, M. C. (1950). "Percy Smith Memorial Lecture: The Revival of Writing Lettering and Illuminating". Journal of the Royal Society of Arts. 98 (4830): 916. ISSN 0035-9114. JSTOR 41364230.
  7. ^ a b Sheppard, F. H. W., ed. (1980). "Grosvenor Square: Introduction". Survey of London: Volume 40, the Grosvenor Estate in Mayfair, Part 2 (The Buildings). London. pp. 112–117. Retrieved 27 August 2023.
  8. ^ a b Lubell 2010, p. 22.
  9. ^ a b Garrett, Nick (6 August 2022). "Wartski case history NGS Design & Gild – NGS Sign lettering & writing". Nick Garrett Signwriter. Retrieved 27 August 2023.
  10. ^ a b "Pen to Printer: Edward Johnston Foundation Seminar". BLAG (Better Letters Magazine). 7 April 2014. Retrieved 27 August 2023.
  11. ^ "Special Report: The Royal Hospital School commemorated at Greenwich". The Royal Hospital School Magazine. No. 25. October 1963. pp. 13–14. Retrieved 27 August 2023.
  12. ^ Gardner, William (1982). Alphabet at Work. New York: St. Martin's Press. p. 18.
  13. ^ a b c d Jackson, Donald; Hughes, Hawksmoor (2005). Donald Jackson interviewed by Hawksmoor Hughes – British Library. British Library. Event occurs at 9:18:00, 10:56:00, 12:26:00, 13:44:00.
  14. ^ a b c Nash, John; Fleuss, Gerald (1992). Practical Calligraphy. Hamlyn. p. 131.
  15. ^ a b Lubell 2010, p. 25.
  16. ^ a b c d e Nash 2002, p. 22.
  17. ^ a b c Lubell 2010, passim.
  18. ^ Simonson, Mark. "Not a font". Mark Simonson Studio (blog). Retrieved 14 December 2016.
  19. ^ Adamson, Glenn (2 July 2013). Levine, Faythe; Macon, Sam (eds.). Sign Painters. Princeton Architectural Press. ISBN 978-1-61689-198-5. Many sign painters are now retired...others have made the transition to easier, cheaper...vinyl lettering or large-scale digital printing.
  20. ^ Nash 2002, pp. 11, 18–19.
  21. ^ Shaw, Paul. "Flawed Typefaces". Paul Shaw Letter Design. Retrieved 28 August 2023.
  22. ^ Smith, Jamie. "English Engravers Roman". MyFonts. Smith Hands. Retrieved 26 August 2023.
  23. ^ Garrett, Nick (25 July 2020). "London's Hand Painted Gold House Numbers". Nick Garrett Signwriter. Retrieved 28 August 2023.
  24. ^ "Roman and Italic capitals". Crafts Study Centre. Retrieved 27 August 2023.
  25. ^ "Enjoy Yourself". Crafts Study Centre. Retrieved 27 August 2023.
  26. ^ "List 2020" (PDF). Art Workers' Guild. Retrieved 2 November 2023.
  27. ^ Nash 2001b, pp. 15–16.
  28. ^ a b c d Lubell 2010, p. 27.
  29. ^ Nash 1999, p. 24.
  30. ^ Nash 2001a, p. 9.
  31. ^ Nash, John (24 June 2015). "Michael Renton: His Hands Magic (abridged digital preview copy)". Issuu. Charlie Behrens/The Lettering & Commemorative Arts Trust. Retrieved 31 August 2023.
  32. ^ "Flowers in Heraldry". Darvill's Rare Prints. Retrieved 27 August 2023.
  33. ^ Lubell 2010.
  34. ^ Morgan, Dewi (1973). Phoenix of Fleet Street: 2000 years of St. Bride's. p. 260.
  35. ^ Clinton, Jane (5 May 2017). "Expert who hones his skills to the letter". Camden New Journal. Retrieved 26 August 2023.
  36. ^ "John Nash". The Lettering Arts Trust. 12 April 2018. Retrieved 26 August 2023.
  37. ^ "John Nash". The Art Workers’ Guild. Retrieved 26 August 2023.
  38. ^ a b Lubell 2010, p. 24.
  39. ^ Foster, Noel. "Geograph:: Toll sign, College Road, Dulwich © Noel Foster cc-by-sa/2.0". Geograph Britain and Ireland. Retrieved 28 August 2023.
  40. ^ Holme, Rathbone; Frost, Kathleen M. (eds.). Modern Lettering and Calligraphy. The Studio Publications. pp. 100–101.
  41. ^ "London Metropolitan Archives: Diocese of Southwark" (PDF). London Metropolitan Archives. Retrieved 18 September 2023.
  42. ^ Long, Donald G. Occasional Ramsgate Writings.
  43. ^ Day, Michael. "A Museum Clerk at the Battle of the Somme". British Library. Retrieved 27 August 2023.
  44. ^ "Frontispiece". British Museum Quarterly. June 1953. Retrieved 28 August 2023.
  45. ^ a b "Kew, St Anne's, Men Of Kew Memorial". Surrey in the Great War: A County Remembers. Surrey County Council. Retrieved 27 August 2023.
  46. ^ Mollett, Marian (2015). "Remembering the Men of Kew" (PDF). Richmond History, Journal of the Richmond Local History Society. Retrieved 4 November 2023.
  47. ^ "Memorial to Sir Theodore". Monumental Journal and Commemorative Art. 28: 318. 1961. Retrieved 18 September 2023. The memorial was designed by Mr. Louis de Soissons...with lettering by Mr. W. H. Sharpington
  48. ^ Lubell 2010, p. 26.
  49. ^ Williams-Ellis, Amabel; Fisher, F. J.; Hickson, Wilma (1936). A History of English Life: Political and Social. London: Methuen. p. iv.
  50. ^ Hutchison, Sam. The Light of Other Days: a selection of monuments, mausoleums and memorials in Church of Ireland churches and graveyards and those whom they commemorate. pp. 87–89. They are...commemorated in a delightful tablet on the north wall of the same church, designed by W. H. Sharpington and subscribed for by friends and admirers in America.
  51. ^ Ellis, Jacky. "Edith Somerville memorial plaque in the Church of Saint Barrahane at Castletownshend Stock Photo – Alamy". Alamy. Retrieved 28 August 2023.

Cited literature

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  • Gibbs, Jon. "Henry Hooper: Lettering Craftsman". The Edward Johnston Foundation Journal: 3–8.
  • Lubell, Stephen (2010). "William Sharpington: a man of letters". Ultrabold: The Journal of St Bride Library (8): 22–27.
  • Nash, John R. (1989). "English Brush Lettering: The Workshop of William Sharpington". The Scribe: 13–15.
  • Nash, John R. (1999). "Bob DuVivier". The Edward Johnston Foundation Journal: 24.
  • Nash, John R. (2001a). "Michael Renton 1934–2001". The Edward Johnston Foundation Journal: 9–10.
  • Nash, John R. (2001b). "Kenneth Breese, Lettering Craftsman". The Edward Johnston Foundation Journal: 15–22.
  • Nash, John R. (2002). "In Defence of the Roman Letter" (PDF). The Edward Johnston Foundation Journal. Retrieved 13 October 2016.
  • Shaw, John (1988). "Percy John Delf Smith R.D.I.". Calligraphy Review: 17–26.
  • Shaw, John (2007). "Percy John Delf Smith RDI 1882–1948: Calligrapher, Lettering Artist and Craftsman". The Edward Johnston Foundation Journal: 2–10.
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