Pippet family of Solihull

The Pippet Family are a family of designers and artists based in Warwickshire and Birmingham, who specialised in Catholic decorative schemes for churches, ecclesiastical metalwork and stained glass windows as well as some textile items. They were part of the British Gothic Revival, notably working for John Hardman & Co in the style of Pugin.

Joseph Aloysius Pippet

Born in Somerset in 1841, he was briefly educated at Downside Catholic school until his family moved to Leamington after his father was appointed land agent to the Throckmortons. His father was a notable convert to Catholicism, which is mentioned in his obituary. Joseph was apprenticed at John Hardman and Co sometime in 1853, becoming a reliable designer and design practice co-ordinator. He designed the interior decoration for Pugin's All Saint's Church in Barton-upon-Irwell, Lancashire. He worked particularly closely with Pugin's apprentice and son-in-law J.H. Powell.

He married Juliet Elizabeth Mary Canning of Handsworth, Birmingham and they had sixteen children. Juliet managed her husband's accounts, writing letters concerning wages and more personal problems to J.H. Powell of Hardman and Co on behalf of Joseph. She was also an exceptional embroiderer, as were two of her daughters. Out of seven daughters four became nuns, one of whom went on to become the Abbess at Teignmouth.

Elphege and Oswald Pippet

Elphege Joseph, born 1868, and Oswald Cody, 1869, and to a lesser extent their younger brother Wilfred, 1873, all worked for Hardman and Co. Later, Elphege and Oswald became independent subcontractors and designed many buildings for the company well into the 1930s.

Some of their designs include:

Gabriel Pippet

Born 1880, Gabriel Joseph Pippet became a renowned designer of mosaic and opus sectile. His finest work can be seen at the Church of the Sacred Heart, Droitwich. He also designed a set of Stations of the Cross for Corpus Christi Church, Baltimore, USA between 1896 and 1914. He taught art at Achimoto College, Gold Coast (now Ghana).

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