The Rowley Gallery was founded in 1898 by Albert James Rowley (1875-1944) and his wife Emma Hamm as a small business specialising in picture framing. Their first premises were at Silver Street, Kensington and the Gallery undertook framing work for local artists, national galleries and museums. During the Great War Albert expanded his business to include decorative inlay panels, screens and mirror designs.

Rowley employed various artists to design for him, his most famous: Sir Frank Brangwyn and his most prolific: William Chase. The numerous designs by these artists and others, reflect the diversity and skill of the craftsmen. There is evidence that panel designs were retailed by Liberty & Co and they were associated with Heals. It is unknown how many panel and mirror designs were made, but catalogues reveal that these would probably have been in the hundreds.

Several exhibitions ensued around the 1920s and by the 1930s the Gallery had moved into furniture production, where they were renowned for their silver-leaf furniture and interior schemes. They exhibited internationally and their reputation was highly acclaimed. With expansion the business premises moved to Kensington Church Street and these were rebuilt in 1933 with a startling ‘Art Deco Modernist’ facade. Three enormous panels designed by Sir Frank Brangwyn were installed above the new shop, which were later destroyed by fire. By 1934 Rowley is known to have employed at least 6 cabinet makers, 3 French polishers 5 paint shop workers and 5 seamstresses.

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ROWLEY GALLERY INLAY WOOD PANEL ‘THE FACTORY’ BY SIR FRANK BRANGWYN

£0.00

Rowley Gallery inlay wood panel

Very rare and extremely large

Depicting factory and river scene

‘The Factory’

Executed by AJ Rowley

Rowley Gallery

Circa 1915

Height 130cm Width 189cm

A similar panel design was illustrated in The Studio Yearbook 1916. This panel shows signs of an old restoration on the bottom right hand side as there are 3 figures along the riverbank instead of 6 in the original.

This panel was exhibited by The Rowley Gallery in 1923 at The Cheltenham Municipal Art Gallery. It was listed in the catalogue as No 49 and priced at £52.10.00, which was a considerable sum of money in the day

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