Thomas Kershaw

Thomas Kershaw (1819–1898) was a leading British pioneer of marbleising, the creation of imitation marble finishes.

He was born in Standish, Lancashire. From the age of 12, he served as an apprentice in Bolton to John Platt, a painter and decorator. During his nine-year apprenticeship, he bought graining tools with money earned from painting pictures and developed his skills in the art of wood graining. After completing his apprenticeship, he moved first to Manchester, then to York, and finally to London in 1845. There he was employed by William Cubitt and Company, becoming their leading wood grainer.

In the mid-1840s, Kershaw left Cubitts to be independent and exhibited his imitation marble panels at the Great Exhibition of 1851, which won him a prize. At the Paris Exposition Universelle of 1855, he won a gold medal but felt obliged to carry out public demonstrations of his craft in the exhibition hall after accusations that he was using some type of fraudulent transfer technique. On his return, he bought a house on Baker Street and set up his own specialist decorating company.

The Journal de Manuell de Painteurers published on Kershaw in September 1855: "We regret that our inferiority to the Englishman is incontestable, and have to acknowledge that his panels must be regarded as masterpieces".

Work Emperor's Room, Buckingham Palace (1858) Baron de Rothchild's mansion Great Western Hotel, Paddington, London Dorchester House, Park Lane, London (demolished, 1929) Manley Hall, Manchester (demolished, 1905)

Examples of his work are on show in Bolton Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum.