William Downing Webster (11 May 1868 – 14 January 1913) was a British ethnographic dealer and collector, best known for his collection gathered from material seized by British troops during the

Benin Expedition of 1897 The Benin Expedition of 1897 was a punitive expedition by a British force of 1,200 men under Sir Harry Rawson in response to the ambush of a previous British party under Acting Consul General James Phillips, of the Niger Coast Protectorate. ...

Life

Webster was born in 1868 in

Greenwich Greenwich ( , ,) is a town in south-east London, England, within the ceremonial county of Greater London. It is situated east-southeast of Charing Cross. Greenwich is notable for its maritime history and for giving its name to the Greenwich ...

to Robert and Sarah Webster. Although his father was in the potato trade, Webster was initially employed as a

stained glass Stained glass is coloured glass as a material or works created from it. Throughout its thousand-year history, the term has been applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches and other significant religious buildings. Although tradition ...

designer in Lancaster before becoming a dealer in ethnographic antiquities in the 1890s. In 1891 he married Agnes Harrison in Kendal. His marriage broke up and he separated from his wife and two daughters. He later lived with Eva Cutter, another ethnographic and antiquities dealer and the daughter of William D. Cutter, in London. He died from alcoholism in Effingham in 1913 and is reportedly buried at

Kensal Green Cemetery Kensal Green Cemetery is a cemetery in the Kensal Green area of Queens Park in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in London, England. Inspired by Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris, it was founded by the barrister George Frederic ...

Career as a Dealer and Collector

Webster began dealing in an collecting ethnographic antiquities in the 1890s. He published a series of catalogues detailing his collection during the next two decades. A number of them had sketches and photographs representing the works he was trading. He also staged a number of exhibitions of ethnographic material at

Earl's Court Earl's Court is a district of Kensington in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in West London, bordering the rail tracks of the West London line and District line that separate it from the ancient borough of Fulham to the west, the ...

. In 1899 he travelled throughout Britain purchasing material from British soldiers returning from the

Benin Expedition The Benin Expedition of 1897 was a punitive expedition by a British force of 1,200 men under Sir Harry Rawson in response to the ambush of a previous British party under Acting Consul General James Phillips, of the Niger Coast Protectorate. ...

, amassing a large quantity of material that was carefully recorded in his catalogues. He kept good business records recording his correspondence and stock movements. In 1904 he sold the entirety of his collection in a five-day auction in London. His business records were acquired by William Ockleford Oldman possibly purchased at the 1904 auction. These records were later acquired by the New Zealand Government when it purchased the Oldman collection in 1944 and are now owned by the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa.

References

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Webster, William Downing 1868 births English art dealers 1913 deaths Burials at Kensal Green Cemetery Collectors 19th-century English businesspeople