Joseph Mayer

Mayer traded as a silversmith and jeweller in Liverpool’s Lord Street, but his passions were collecting and antiquarianism. Especially notable for Wedgwood and other pottery and Egyptian antiquities, his vast collections were one of the greatest gifts received by the Liverpool Museum (now World Museum) in its first years. He is shown in the library of his house in Clarence Terrace, Everton, sitting in a Gothic chair constructed from materials saved from William Roscoe’s house, which had been demolished some years earlier. One of the spaniels whose portrait Mayer had just commissioned from Richard Ansdell lies underneath.