19 Facts About Henry Bone

Henry Bone was elected a Royal Academician and produced the largest enamel paintings ever seen up to that time.

Henry Bone's father was a cabinet maker and carver of unusual skill.

In 1767, Bone's family moved to Plymouth in neighbouring Devon, where Henry was employed, in 1771, by William Cookworthy, the founder of the Plymouth porcelain works and the first manufacturer of Hard-paste porcelain in England.

Later in the same year Bone moved with the factory to Bristol, where then factory was under the management of Richard Champion of Bristol.

In 1772, Henry Bone was apprenticed to Champion, not to Cookworthy as often repeated.

Henry Bone first found employment enameling watches and fans, and afterwards in making enamel and watercolour portraits.

Henry Bone became a friend of John Wolcot who would encourage the talents of portraitist John Opie, for many years Bone's neighbour in Berners Street, London.

On Wolcot's advice, Henry Bone made professional tours in Cornwall, from where Opie hailed.

Henry Bone then gave himself up entirely to enamel-painting, and continued frequently to exhibit at the Academy, initialing most of his works.

Henry Bone initially used a subcontractor, Mr Long, to created the copper plates upon which his works were created.

Henry Bone died on 17 December 1834, not without complaining of the neglect with which he had latterly been treated.

Henry Bone is said to have been "a man of unaffected modesty and generosity; friendship and integrity adorned his private life".

In 1819, Henry Bone had attended the funeral of Harlow alongside their friend Sir William Beechey.

Today the largest collections of Henry Bone's work are to be found in three principal locations.

The Royal Collection houses many portraits, the largest number from a series of Monarchs started by Bone and finished by his son Henry Pierce Bone, are housed at Hillsborough Castle near Belfast.

The 1951 Festival of Britain saw a number of Henry Bone's enamels lent by King George VI and others to the museum in Truro for an exhibition of Henry Bone's miniatures alongside the portraits of his friend John Opie.

Henry Bone remains the only enameller to have been appointed a full member of the Royal Academy.

Two of his sons, Henry Pierce Bone and William Bone, were notable enamellists and Robert Trewick Bone, an oil painter.

Four of Bone's grandchildren followed their father, Henry Pierce Bone and became artists, the most notable being Charles Richard Bone who exhibited enamel and other miniatures at the Royal Academy more than 40 times.