Richard Bennett (born 1849) was from Horwich, near Bolton. By 1881 he was living at Great Lever Hall and was owner or manager of John Smith Junior & Co., a bleaching and chemical manufacturing company in Great Lever. In 1890/91 Bennett moved to Southport and then Manchester, but before 1911, when his collection was sold to W.H. Lever by Gorer for £275,000, Bennett had moved to Thornby Hall, Northamptonshire.
Published sources
Gorer, Edgar, ‘Catalogue of the Collection of old Chinese Porcelains formed by Richard Bennett, Esq. Thornby Hall, Northampton’, London, 1911.
Impey, Oliver, ‘Lever as a collector of Chinese porcelain’ in Morris, Edward (ed.), “Art and Business in Edwardian England: The Making of The Lady Lever Art Gallery”, Journal of the History of Collections, volume 4, number 2, 1992, p.234 |
