George Tinworth

George Tinworth (5 November 1843 – 10 September 1913) was an English ceramic artist who worked for the Doulton factory at Lambeth from 1867 until his death.

Born at 6 Milk Street, Walworth Common, South London, England, Tinworth was the son of a greengrocer turned wheelwright and the family suffered extreme poverty. Brought up to follow in his father's footsteps, he spent his spare time carving off-cuts and soon showed a precocious talent for art. He had been impressed as a boy with so-called living statues who displayed themselves at fairs. He used to peek through the cracks of the tents. At home he began to "do the statues before the looking-glass." (Chums boys' annual, 1896, page 135). He started to carve butter stamps and a foreman plasterer in the next street suggested he went to art school to study anatomy. At nineteen he pawned his overcoat to pay for evening classes at the local Lambeth School of Art in Kennington Park Road. In Chums Boys Annual of 1896 Tinworth explained: "I had to keep the whole affair dark from my father. Indeed, I went to Lambeth School of Art of a night for months before he knew anything about it. He used to ask my mother where I was, but happily for me she always refused to gratify his curiosity." (Chums, 1896).

Before he sold any work he made money by mending cart wheels. He also worked in a fireworks factory earning half a crown per week. From there he moved to a hot presser's where for four shillings per week he worked from seven in the morning until nine at night.

In the same year that he began study at Lambeth he created the 'The Mocking of Christ', now on show at the Cuming Museum on the Walworth Road, Southwark.

From the Lambeth School of Art (now the City and Guilds of London Art School) he went on to the Royal Academy Schools in 1864, winning various medals for his work. After the Royal Academy he got a job with Doulton, the Lambeth stoneware manufacturer, Tinworth had previously been one of a group of students from the Lambeth School of Art who assisted its principal, John Sparkes in the making of a terracotta frieze for an extension to Doulton's premises.

...
Wikipedia