Marcus Ward - A Virtual Exhibition

The beginning of the company

In 1802 a partnership was formed between John Ward, a paper manufacturer, and two other men also in the paper business, Robert Greenfield and James Blow. By the 1820’s this led to a new company, John Ward and Sons, who ran paper mills in Belfast, Comber and Coleraine. John Ward’s son, Marcus took over the Belfast operation in the early 1830’s. When John died in 1836, Marcus formed a new firm, Marcus Ward and Sons, based in Pottinger’s Entry in Belfast. He moved the Company away from paper into stationery, binding and printing. By 1842 the firm was successful enough to move into more substantial premises in Cornmarket, Belfast. Under Marcus it became involved in colour lithography, an important new technology. So successful was the Company in this area that after Marcus died in 1847, his Company won a prize medal for its colour lithography work in the Great Exhibition of 1851. His three sons, Francis, William and John were to see their father’s company develop into one of Britain’s major printers, through its combination of technological skills and high artistic standards.

Illuminated addresses

The high artistic standards that Marcus Ward and Company developed are nowhere better seen than in the fine, illuminated addresses that they produced. John Vinycombe, originally from Newcastle upon Tyne, became the Artistic Director of the Company. Vinycombe was a superb illustrator and was to become a renowned authority on heraldry. It was during his time that the Art Department of the Company was to become famous not only for its work in colour lithography, but for the creation of illuminated addresses. So renowned were these productions that many of the crowned heads of Europe had a Marcus Ward illuminated address either presented to them or commissioned by them. The Company’s customers included the British Royal Family, the Emperor Napoleon III and the Pope.

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Vere Foster

In 1865 William Yeates, the manager of the Company’s Dublin’s branch introduced Vere Foster to the firm. Vere Foster was a wealthy Anglo-Irish philanthropist with an interest in public education.
Marcus Ward and Company, Belfast, became the printer for these highly popular works, although Foster continued to control the publishing of them. Their popularity led to a total of over four million of them being produced.
So successful was this activity that in the 1870’s the firm built new premises in Dublin Road, Belfast, partly on the strength of it. The relationship between Vere Foster and the Company broke down in a series of acrimonious disputes and eventual litigation. Foster eventually withdrew his lucrative business from the Company. This loss was certainly a factor in the final closure of the Company.

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Children’s books

Marcus Ward and Company’s skills at producing illustrated material inevitably led to the publication of children’s books. The first appeared in 1873, the finest were produced the 1880s. The employment of major illustrators including Kate Greenaway, Walter and Thomas Crane and Elizabeth Ellen Houghton was to guarantee the production of some of the most beautiful children’s books of the age. With their exquisite colour illustrations, they are still considered classics. They appealed to artistic, educated parents who sought the highest standards for their children’s reading material.

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Cards and Stationery

During the 1860’s and 1870’s Marcus Ward & Co. became one of the first mass producers of calendars and greeting cards.
The rise in popularity of greeting cards, mostly unknown before 1860, was due to the arrival of a uniform postal delivery service in 1839, and also to the invention of colour lithography which made the products inexpensive to mass produce.
For 30 years from 1860 these cards became world famous and to send or receive one was to be considered the height of fashion in late Victorian society.
The success of the card and stationery business was mainly due to William Ward. He had an eye for new talent and recruited some of the best illustrators and designers of the period for the London office. These included Kate Greenaway who achieved world-wide fame as an illustrator.

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End of the Company

In the 1890’s the Company was still successful, winning a gold medal for its lithography and stationery at the Victorian Era Exhibition in London.
However competition from other companies, and advances in photographic processes meant that the Company was finding it difficult to maintain their position in the market. Marcus Ward & Co. simply could not keep pace with technological innovations.
In 1899 the Company wound up its business and paid off all creditors and shareholders in full. In total 1,400 men, mostly skilled craftsmen lost their jobs.
The rival company, McCaw, Stevenson & Orr, acquired the rights to the Marcus Ward name in 1900 and continued to use it for a range of products up until World War 11.
Fortunately products have survived particularly in the collections of libraries and museums. Among the finest of these collections is that held by Belfast Public Libraries.

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Marcus Ward & Company of Belfast

A publication entitled Marcus Ward & Co. of Belfast accompanies the exhibition. It was written by Roger Dixon, Librarian at the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum, Cultra, who previously held the post of Local Studies Librarian in Belfast Central Library. Roger Dixon is a renowned authority on Marcus Ward and indeed on the history of Belfast.
This lavishly illustrated publication is available to purchase at the Information Desk in Central Library and costs £5.

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