Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Jones, John (1800?-1882)
JONES, JOHN (1800?–1882), virtuoso, was born about 1800 in the county of Middlesex. After serving his apprenticeship, he set up, about 1825, as a tailor and army clothier, at 6 Waterloo Place, London. He remained in business there till 1850, when he retired, with a share as a sleeping-partner. For fourteen or fifteen years Jones lived over his business premises at Waterloo Place, and here formed the nucleus—about one-fourth—of his extensive and costly collection of objects of vertu. In 1865 he removed to 95 Piccadilly, London, a house of moderate size facing the Green Park. The hall, the dining-room, the three drawing-rooms, and even the bedrooms were gradually filled, and in some cases crowded, with his purchases. (For descriptive plan, &c., of the house, see South Kensington Museum Handbook, pp. 1–3, 10 ff.) Jones lived a retired and abstemious life. He was a great walker, and kept no carriage or horses. While in business he had a branch establishment at Dublin, and frequently went to Ireland. He often visited France and other parts of Europe until the latter years of his life. His health was always good, and his death, which took place at 95 Piccadilly, on 7 Jan. 1882, was the result of old age. He was buried on 14 Jan. in the Brompton cemetery. His will was proved on 1 March 1882 by his executors, Oliver Richards and C. M. Luden. The estate was nearly 400,000l. A few legacies were left to friends—he had no near relations—and to charitable institutions, and the residue, about 70,000l., to the convalescent hospital at Ventnor. Most of his plate was left to a friend.
His pictures, furniture, and objects of vertu were left by his will to the South Kensington Museum, on the condition of being ‘kept separate as one collection, and not distributed over various parts of the said museum, or lent for exhibition.’ The collection, which has been roughly valued at 250,000l., consists of rare and valuable furniture of France, Italy, and England; of porcelain, including some magnificent specimens of Sèvres; of ivories, enamels, snuff-boxes, miniatures, pictures, books, &c. The pictures include some good specimens of the English school. The books—about 780 in number—are chiefly ordinary works of English poetry and history, including, however, the rare first, second, and third folios of Shakespeare. A ‘Catalogue of the Jones Bequest’ was published by the South Kensington authorities in 1882, and a ‘Handbook of the Jones Collection,’ pp. viii, 160, in 1883 (see also Athenæum, 16 Dec. 1882, pp. 819, 820). The ‘Handbook’ contains illustrations of the principal objects, and, as a frontispiece, a portrait of the donor, engraved by Joseph Brown, from a sketch by Richard Deighton.
[Memoir in the Handbook of the Jones Collection.]