Arthur at Lewis's Manchester 1965

 

Silhouettes date back to ancient times although they were later named after
Etienne de Silhouette (1709 - 1767) who was the Finance Minister to Louis XV
of France.

 

Etienne had a bit of a reputation for having a tight grip on the purse strings.
Because of this people started to describe inexpensive  things as "a la
Silhouette". The reason the term stuck with the black profile pictures was that
Etienne used to cut them as a hobby. As it was also an inexpensive way of
getting your portrait done, the papercuts too were "a la Silhouette".

 

Some artists painted silhouettes and some used ink. Our family have always
cut them from black paper as did Etienne himself. Personally, I'm just pleased
he had an attractive surname.

 

Arthur with Morecambe & Wise 1956

 

Silhouette cutting was in my family from the day I was born. In the late 60's
and early 70's my grandfather Arthur Forrester had a silhouette profile studio
halfway along Brighton Palace Pier next to The House Of Hades. As a small
child I loved my holidays in Brighton because the studio was the base, and I
could run freely up and down the pier every day visiting the amusements,
ghost train, dodgems and helter skelter.

 

When I returned to the studio Arthur would invariably have a customer, and
usually a queue of people, waiting for their turn to have a silhouette portrait
cut.

 

He cut the pictures with a large pair of vining scissors to which he was so
finely attuned that if someone used them when his back was turned he
would know becauseof their altered sharpness.

 

The paper he used was printed black on one side. He would have the
customer sit sideways to him so that he could see their profile clearly.
They faced a light-box featuring a silhouette of Sir Winston Churchill
smoking a cigar. This was enough to hold the interest and keep them
still for the minute or so that the profile would take to cut.

 

Arthur with Wilfred Pickles

 

Unseen by the customer, Arthur would fold the paper neatly in half with the
black side facing inwards. This would keep the paper
sturdy, protect the black surface from finger marks, and looking at the white
side of the paper rather than the black was easier on the eyes. Looking up
at the customer only occasionally, Arthur kept the scissors in one position
and kept turning the paper instead.  When the cutting was finished he had
two papercuts which he would hand to the customer black side up. They
could be purchased loose, two for a shilling, or at extra cost be mounted,
tinted with gold pencil or gold leaf, and framed.

 

Many silhouette artists gave the customer one copy while retaining the other
for use in an album as a record of their work. Arthur always presented both
to the paying customer, prefering to give them better value for money, rather
than keeping one as a record for the future use of collectors who would only
be interested in his work after his death. Perhaps too, he was an early
pioneer of "buy one get one free". He rarely signed his silhouettes for the
same reason.

 

 

Arthur with the world famous Captain Hook 1965

 

It is of course very logical for the collectors to be largely interested in the
work of dead artists - when dead they can create no more work. Everything
that was made is now a sort of limited edition - it can't be added to.
I guess Arthur, by producing unsigned work, has made the collectors' job a
touch harder. Nobody knows exactly what he produced, but he certainly
claimed to have cut over one million profiles in his career.

 

When Arthur died, his scissors and studio were taken over by his son John.
My uncle John was, in my memory at least, a bit of a joker. He employed a
helper called "Billy The Quid" who concocted a strategy for beating the slot machines in the pier's amusement arcade. On one occasion Billy and I were
working his system (actually it wasn't working) and were booted off the pier
by the arcade manager. That evening I explained to my uncle that we'd done
nothing wrong. We hadn't nudged the machines or cheated in any way.
"Don't worry" John said, "I'll sort it out tomorrow".

 

The next day as the manager passed the studio, John called out to him and whispered to me that he'd tell him straight.
"Excuse me" he said to the manager, "This is my nephew and I gather you
kicked him off the pier yesterday. I'd just like to say that he's on holiday and
he really likes playing the slot machines, so next time you see him in there
I'd be really grateful if you'd just kick him off the pier again. Thanks".
Well thanks to you too John. Anyway, the truth is that John was great fun,
even if the joke was sometimes on me.

 

Eventually John gave up silhouette cutting and instead turned his hand to
running a "Tricks and Jokes" shop at the end of the pier, which no doubt
suited him very well.

 

He was sadly killed at the young age of 36. However, in his cutting years
John made a reputation for himself and many believed that John was a
better profile artist than Arthur.

 

Arthur and John were not alive when I began silhouette cutting in 1990.
During a period of unemployment I discovered a carrier bag full of their
paper together with  their scissors in a cupboard and realized that nobody
had updated the art form. There were still a few silhouette artists in Britain
but they produced profiles and I believed silhouettes would lend themselves
to a wider range of subjects.

 

My first designs were of Bamburgh Castle and Holy Island and after several
poor attempts with a razor blade I was convinced the designs would work if I
found the right cutting tool. After a long search I discovered the perfect tool
for me - a Swann Morton scalpel with a 10A blade, and I've always used that
since.

 

I put the first pictures in an Alnwick craft shop and they sold straight away.
The customers soon began to request other designs of subjects that
interested them. Their ideas gave me the inspiration for the next designs
and although I rarely accept commissions, requests from my customers still
point me in the right direction. As the range of designs increases I discard
some of the older ones. I don't keep a record of all the old designs so I guess
the collectors will one day be confused. Never mind. That's the family tradition.

 

 

©John Speight 2008