Woolwich Arsenal, about 1750: the forge and shot-moulding workshop in the Laboratory

(Updated, February 2018) On the left two smiths are working at a double forge: the man at left is pumping the overhead bellows for his fire. To the right is another furnace used for melting lead, with various containers and crucibles on the mantel-shelf above. The man in front is pouring hot lead into a small-shot mould while his colleage at the vice, centre, is probably filing mould flashings from a piece of lead shot of some sort, with the filings being collected underneath for recycling. An overseer stands behind, with box moulds of various sizes stacked on shelves on the rear wall to the right. At front right some of the men's coats and hats hang on hooks above a wooden storage chest. The Royal Laboratory at Woolwich was constructed in 1696 for the purpose of manufacturing munitions and became centre of a larger site, formally renamed the Royal Arsenal in 1805. This drawing is one of 11 of which the numbers are non-sequential owing to the different boxes in which they are stored (by mount size): PAH4071-72, PAI0744-46, PAI7701-03, PAJ2303 and PAJ2312. Four (including this one) were reproduced as a double-page spread in the 'Illustrated London News' of 1 January 1916, pp.14-15, as having recently appeared at auction by Messrs Hodgsons' and been bought by the ILN for that purpose. This makes it likely that they were later given to the NMM by Sir Bruce Ingram, managing proprietor and editor of the ILN and an early supporter of the Museum. They have been attributed to Gamaliel Massiot, an obscure artist of probably Huguenot French ancestry who was drawing master at the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich from 1744 to 1768, after which he continued in a secondary position under Paul Sandby to shortly before his death early in 1782 (see further notes to PAI0746).

Object Details

ID: PAI7703
Type: Drawing
Display location: Not on display
Creator: British School, 18th century; Massiot, Gamaliel
Places: Unlinked place
Date made: circa 1750
Credit: National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London
Measurements: Sheet: 380 x 884 mm; Mount: 509 mm x 1140 mm
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