Summer 2019 marks the Daniels Family’s (daVinci Artist Brushes, Alibabette Editions & Super 5 Pen & Inks) 95th Anniversary in Art Materials!
Here is a brief timeline:
In 1924 H.G. Daniels (1903-1989), born in Chelsea on West 25th Street in Manhattan, begins work at Devoe & Raynolds Artist Materials (founded 1754), a company older than America with factories in Manhattan & Chicago. He rides the rails all over the United States, Canada, and Mexico selling artist materials to retailers.
He soon acquires the stock of the San Francisco warehouse of Devoe and starts the H.G. Daniels Co. in downtown Los Angeles. In 1933, he is instrumental in forming the first art materials trade organization, the National Association of Artist & Drawing Materials Dealers who hold their first convention at the Hotel Pennsylvania in New York. In 1950, he co-founds NAMTA.
The H.G. Daniels Co. becomes the largest retailer of Artist Materials, Books on the Fine Arts & Architectural Supplies west of the Mississippi for over 50 years. In 1967, his son Peter Daniels begins running the stores with his father.
In 1998 Peter’s son Gregory Daniels begins working with da Vinci Brushes in Germany after surviving a lengthy cancer battle followed by a bone marrow transplant.
In 2001, Gregory forms Gregory Daniels Fine Arts. “I was introduced to Hermann Meyer of da Vinci Brushes at the NAMTA show in San Francisco (1995) by Steven Steinberg of NY Central Artist Materials,” He says. “I feel very fortunate for this encounter.”
Submitted by daVinci Brushes
