Announcing Rosenstiels Fine Art now joined Compassionate Arts Tile and Stone Family

Compassionate Arts Tile and Stone is pleased to announce that Rosenstiel’s of London is now part of our family of art publishers. We found it refreshing to learn that Rosentiel’s has been in the art business since 1880 and to this day is run by the original family members. Below please enjoy reading about their history and their contribution in the world of art publishing.

Felix Rosenstiel was a well-known figure in the German art world during the 19th century. He often travelled to London on behalf of a picture framing company and developed a sound knowledge of the London framing and art world. In 1880 he moved to London with his Romanian wife Josephine and established an art and framing business in the City.

The struggle to create his own business took a toll on Felix’s health. Realising he had a serious heart condition and not wishing his small but sound business to close in the event of his death, he requested Josephine to carry on after his demise. Shortly afterwards, in 1895, Felix suffered a fatal heart attack.

By this time, the Rosenstiel’s reputation had grown and business flourished, keeping pace with the expanding market for intaglio and other impressions of great works of art. Josephine honoured her promise to continue Felix’s work, and the company name expanded to Felix Rosenstiel’s Widow – a title as unusual then as now. With three children to raise, Josephine’s struggle was an uphill one. When her eldest son Percy reached 15, she brought him into the company on the advice of the accountants. Both Percy and his brother Edgar, who joined a few years later, had inherited their father’s business sense. The trading name was altered to Felix Rosenstiel’s Widow and Son and Josephine retired from active business life.

As the First World War ended, Rosenstiel’s treated the austere years that followed as a challenge rather than an obstacle. Victoriana had ceased to be fashionable, demand for pictures had fallen dramatically, and the depression had arrived. It was a case of diversify or die Rosenstiel’s spent the next decade exploring fields that would astonish anyone who knows the company today; Barbola ware, painted mirrors, coasters, calendars and table mats were just some of the opportunities the Roe brothers (the family name was changed from the Germanic Rosenstiel to the English Roe during the First World War) exploited in their fight to preserve their father’s company. Their determination was rewarded, but sadly Edgar died in 1942 and Percy found himself running the business alone. By 1945, much Rosenstiel’s property had been obliterated or damaged by enemy action and materials and paper were almost impossible to obtain. Percy threw himself into a wholehearted effort to restore the prosperity of the pre-war years, aided by his two eldest sons, Jervis and Peter who had returned after their war service. By the early fifties, Percy had ensured Rosenstiel’s destiny. He died in 1953. An acceleration followed his death as his plans were fulfilled. Peter and Jervis continued as partners until 1957, when Rosenstiel’s became a limited company. The 1960s marked the beginning of a long period of growing public interest in reproduction prints, and Rosenstiel’s gave people the opportunity to own good reproductions of paintings by old masters and introduced many talented young artists.

1965 saw the next generation join the business when the company’s current Managing Director, David Roe, Jervis’s son and great-grandson of Felix, decided to make fine art publishing his career. David’s part was to establish firmer links with existing export customers and discover new fields abroad. His drive has taken Rosenstiel’s to over 100 countries and culminated in the grant of the prestigious Queen’s Award For Export Achievement in 1993. David’s two children, Alexia and Nicolas, both work in the business, representing the fifth generation.

Over the years Rosenstiel’s has taken over a number of publishing companies, including John Harrap and Son in 1938 and Richard Wyman and Son Ltd. in 1949. In 1992, Venture Prints was acquired. Venture Prints was the publishing division of Frost and Reed, founded in 1808, whose portfolio of fine art prints and unique and historically important collection of intaglio printing plates is admired throughout the world. In 1995, Rosenstiel’s acquired many of the print publishing assets of the world-renowned company of Stehli Freres of Switzerland. Stehli was founded in Geneva in 1902 and enjoyed a reputation for quality and service throughout the world. The owners felt that Rosenstiel’s had a sufficiently similar ethos to ensure the continuation of the same high levels of quality.

The company won two major export awards in 2004: Overall Exporter of the Year in the International Business Awards, organised in conjunction with the Department of Trade & Industry and sponsored by the Export Times and HSBC, and Exporter of the Year from the London Business Awards, organised by the London Chamber of Commerce and sponsored by KPMG, ITV and The Evening Standard. In addition to these two awards, Rosenstiel’s was honoured to win at the International Business Awards the major prize of the year, when it was named “Corporate Exporter of the Year”, beating BBC Worldwide into second place. In 2005 the company celebrated its 125th anniversary on Friday 14 October. In 2007 Rosenstiel’s was honoured to be granted a second Queen’s Award for Enterprise. This highly unusual second award was presented by Her Majesty The Queen at Buckingham Palace in July 2007.

The sixth generation of the family, Henrietta, Charles and Georgiana Edgar, who were born in 1995, 1997 and 1999 respectively, give hope for the continuance of the company for generations to come.
For Rosenstiel’s Fine Artists Tile Murals please visitwww.compassionatearts.com