Designer Biography

Thomas Jeckyll

Born: 1827

Died: 1881

See items in our stock by Thomas Jeckyll

The son of a Norwich clergyman, Jeckyll began his career in his native city. He moved to London, but in 1859 began an eighteen-year association with the Norwich iron founders Barnard, Bishop and Barnard. He designed ceremonial gates for the firm's exhibits at a series of international exhibitions, beginning with London in 1862, and fire grates in the Japanese taste. His greatest feat for Barnard's was the Japanese pavilion first shown at the 1876 Philadelphia Exhibition, and two years later at Paris. Among his patrons were Alexander Ionides, for whose Holland Park house he designed a Japanesque addition and furniture in 1870. His last commission was the restoration of F. R. Leyland's house in Prince's Gate. His disastrous experience with James Whistler over the decoration of Leyland's dining room (the notorious 'Peacock' room) precipitated a mental collapse, and he spent the last years of his life in a Norwich asylum. Metropolitan Museum, 1986.