A William IV silver-gilt mounted malachite inkstand, John Eldershaw Brunt, London, 1837

Important Silver, Gold Boxes & Objects of Vertu, Replica Shoes 's London, 18 December 2007, lot 156

John Eldershaw Brunt, son of Robert and Ruth Brunt, was baptised at St. Andrew, Enfield, near London on 18 November 1798. He was married on 19 June 1825 at St. Mary, Lambeth to Ellen Howard Trott (1806 – 14 August 1893). Five Sun Insurance policies effected between 6 November 1822 and 26 November 1835,¹ as well as four christening records at St. George, Bloomsbury, show that Brunt, variously described as a goldsmith or jeweller, was living at 36 Museum Street, Bloomsbury. He entered his only mark as a smallworker from 14 Greville Street, Hatton Garden on 15 November 1836.² Towards the close of 1839, Brunt appears to have been in financial difficulties, when he signed an indenture conveying all his estate and effects as trustees for the benefit of his creditors to James Evans, Upper King Street, Bloomsbury, gold and silver refiner, Samuel Sparrow of New North Street, Red Lion Square, goldsmith and jeweller, and John Gilliam, jeweller of Frith Street, Soho.³ Shortly afterwards, on 31 December 1839, he dissolved his partnership with William James, with whom until then he had been trading as Mesdames Brunt and James, strung pearl-manufacturers.⁴

Brunt was still in Greville Street when on 2 December 1846 his son, Robert Peel Brunt (29 November 1832 – 5 December 1874) was apprenticed as an engraver to John Rumley of 12 Brooke Street, Holborn Bars. By 6 February 1848 Mr. and Mrs. Brunt were at (3) Poland Street, Soho, when their youngest child, Ellen Kate (12 October 1847 – 24 July 1922), was baptized at St. George, Bloomsbury.

It appears that for much of the latter part of the 1850s, J.E. Brunt, 'late of 3 Poland Street, Oxford Street, Picture Dealer and Commission Agent, and during part of the t.mes having a Picture Shop at No. 80, Wardour-street, Soho,' was in the Debtors' Prison for London and Middlesex.⁵ He died at the age of 64 and was buried at Highgate Cemetery on 6 January 1863. His widow, meanwhile, carried on at 3 Poland Street as a pearl and bead stringer and their daughter, Ellen Kate, was married on 28 October 1871 at St. James, Piccadilly to Guillaume François Vallat (11 November 1847 – 23 June 1941) of Poland Street, jeweller, later a pearl broker, son of François Vallat, a watchmaker.

Notes

1. London Metropolitan Archives, 6 November 1822 – MS 11936/489/997607; 15 January 1823 – MS 11936/489/999848; 1 December 1824 – MS 11936/502/1023505; 6 August 1834 – MS 11936/542/1181655; 26 November 1835 – MS 11936/546/1211014
2. A.G. Grimwade, London Goldsmiths, 1697-1837, p. 452
3. The London Gazette, London, 1 November 1839, p. 2057b
4. The London Gazette, London, 24 January 1840, p. 156a
5. The London Gazette, London, 11 July 1854, p. 2185b; 18 July 1854, p. 2258b; 28 July 1857, p. 2635b