ROBERT PARMINTER CUFF (4 Sep 1819-11 Oct 1883)
What got me started with the Cuff family in Wellington, Somerset, was an Antiques Roadshow UK episode in Season 26 (Episode 1, filmed at Sudeley). A man brought in a painting signed by “R.P. Cuff” and said, “This was painted by my grandmother’s uncle . . . And as I understand it, the lady who is in the centre of the picture, who is dying, was his mother, and that would be his wife and one of his daughters.” It stopped me in my tracks when the art expert replied, “Yes, It’s quite remarkable to think that somebody would have the presence of mind or the ability to record the scene. We have his portfolio here and his name — R.P. Cuff — who I don’t recognise as any particular noted artist . . . But this quite often happens. It’s extraordinary that somebody with so much ability did this, and PROBABLY DID ONE OR TWO OTHER WATERCOLOURS AND NOT MUCH ELSE [emphasis mine]. But just examining the painting . . .” He went on to point out a piece of cheese, a wonderful posy, etc.
So, it started me thinking. Would it have been fairer to say “whose name I don’t recognise” and leave it at that? And what makes a person “any particular noted artist”? They have a book published with their pictures in it? Their paintings have to sell for more than, let’s say, £10,000? More than 75% of the current “experts” know their name? I don’t know what their rules are, but I liked the painting. Gave a real idea of what normal things looked like back then. If you want to see what someone’s head looked like, Reynolds and Kneller do a decent job, but they do little (if anything) to transport you back to the sitter’s time. This R.P. Cuff painting had a lot to look at, and it did transport you back in time.
I couldn’t let this artist rest in his grave without rallying to his defense. After a short bit of sleuthing, there’s no doubt that the dying person in the painting was actually his father, the Rev John Harcombe Cuff, and that it is the artist’s mother and younger sister at the bedside. (By the way, he’d died of a “slight chill” he’d taken four days earlier, not consumption.) Right before his death in 1883, R.P. Cuff gave numerous items to the British Museum (including work he’d done with John Ruskin). Another piece was a drawing/engraving of the father that was on his deathbed in the painting. Richard was a watercolourist, painter (exhibiting at the Royal Academy), and engraver (more than a few for John Ruskin and others). How’s that for name dropping? Not bad for an artist of no particular note who produced “not much else”, eh?
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Information extracted from “Materials for the History of the Town and Parish of Wellington in the County of Somerset“, Parts 1-4, by Arthur Lee Humphreys, 1908. (This is an amazing bit of research work, if you’re looking for more information on Wellington history.)
Where is this picture, as described on page 395 of the same Humphreys book?
“I have a photograph of a picture which shows the front view of this old Independent Chapel. In the burial ground a funeral service is being conducted by the pastor Mr Cuff. On the footpath outside the church grounds there is a bath-chair, in which is seated Mrs Elizabeth Parminter, which is being drawn by Roger Nott. Thomas Jarman Cuff is by the side of the chair. In the road there is a group of three figures which represents Mr Davie, the attorney, with his wife and daughter. The picture was drawn by Richard Parminter Cuff in 1843.”
Bridport, Beaminster, and Lym Regis Telegram, 26 Oct 1883, p9:
DEATHS. October 11, after a few days’ illness, at 5, Thornhill-square, London, N., Richard Parminter Cuff, eldest surviving son of the late Rev. John Harcombe Cuff, of Wellington, Somerset, aged 64. [NB–This is where he was lodging at the time of the 1881 census, listed as Painter/Artist.]
Taunton Courier, 08 Mar 1947, p2:
SOMERSET ARTISTS
Richard Parminter Cuff was a son of the Rev John Harcombe Cuff, who was minister of the Independent Chapel, Wellington, from 1813 o 1845. His father evidently named him after the Rev. Richard Parminter, who was minister of the chapel from 1767 to 1777 [and just happened to be the baby’s maternal Grandfather]. R.P. Cuff was a clever artist and engraver, who did much work in illustrating John Ruskin’s works. He also engraved a fine portrait of his father, the Rev. J.H. Cuff.
In the 1871 census, he’s the head of the household at 101 Englefield Road in Finsbury, Islington, London (occupation: artist, engraver and painter, water colors). His two unmarried sisters, 38yo Sophia and 36yo Phoebe are living with him. They have one domestic servant, 50yo Harriet Orchard.
In the 1861 census, he is lodging in a Boarding House at 38 Canning Street, Clerkenwell St James (Pentonville), Middlesex. Occupation: artist, engraver of lithos and watercolor painter.
In the 1851 census, Richard (artist, engraver, architectural, etc.) and his brother 24yo William Hosch Cuff (bookseller, collector) were RENTING part of a house at 7 Owen Row (not lodging).
Buried in the Family Vault at the Congregational Independent Chapel in Wellington, Somerset, England.
If you find R.P. Cuff on FindaGrave.com, you’ll see the rest of my research on his family.
Two of Richard’s brothers (Thomas Jarman and William Hosch) operated Cuff Brothers out of Preston, Lancashire, from about 1857-1876. They acquired another business in Scarborough, York, in 1864. Both were sold in 1876, when they moved their business to Dover, 1-2 Snargate Street, where they were listed as “printers, booksellers, stationers and circulating library proprietors”. William died in 1894, Thomas Jarman in 1904; at which time, the Dover business was dissolved.
