Maker/Retailer Biography

John Gregory Crace

Dates: 1809-1889

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Crace entered the family decorating firm (established in about 1768 by his great-grandfather Edward, a coach decorator) in 1826, soon after his grandfather and father had completed extensive works on royal commissions, at Carlton House and the Brighton Pavilion respectively. He himself was to be closely associated with A. W. N. Pugin from 1843, when he commenced work on the interiors of the New Palace of Westminster, also supplying furniture for the Grange from 1844. He supervised the decoration of the Medieval Court at the Great Exhibition in 1851 and was responsible for the interior of the 1862 Exhibition building, and the Manchester Art Treasures Exhibition in 1857. He also showed at Paris in 1855. After Pugin's death he continued to work in a Puginesque Gothic, completing elaborate furniture and decoration at Abney Hall in Cheshire, and made furniture to E. W. Pugin's designs for Scarisbrick in the I870s. In 1854 he was joined by his son John Diblee Crace, who rose to prominence as an exponent of the revived Renaissance style. The firm closed in 1899.