Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Grego, Joseph
GREGO, JOSEPH (1843–1908), writer on art, born on 23 Sept. 1843 at 23 Granville Square, Clerkenwell, was elder son of Joseph Grego (1817–1881), a looking-glass manufacturer, by his wife Louisa Emelia Dawley. His grandfather, Antonio Grego, a native of Como, settled in London before 1821 as a looking-glass manufacturer, the firm becoming Susan Grego & Sons in 1839, and Charles & Joseph Grego in 1845. After education at private schools Grego was for a time with Lloyds, the underwriters. Inheriting the spirit of collecting from his father, he drifted into that pursuit, combining it with dealing, art joumalism, and authorship. He specialised as writer and collector in the work of Gillray, Rowlandson, Morland, and Cruikshank, and was an acknowledged authority on all of them. He was chiefly responsible for the edition of James Gillray' s 'Works' in 1873, although the name of Thomas Wright (1810–77) [q. v.] alone appears in the title-page, and he edited 'Rowlandson the Caricaturist' (2 vols. 4to, 1880). Both books, which illustrate Grego's comprehensive and thorough method of work, became standard books of reference. He collected much material for a life of Morland, which he did not complete. In 1904 he published 'Cruikshank's Water Colours,' with an introduction and reproductions in colours. In 1874 he compiled a volume of 'Thackerayana' (dated 1875), based upon books with marginal and other sketches, from Thackeray's sale; owing to copyright difficulties the volume was immediately suppressed, but was reissued in 1898 (cf. Athenæum, 9 May 1908). A frequent writer on art in periodicals and the press, and editor of 'Pears' Pictorial,' 1893-6, he wrote 'History of Parliamentary Elections in the Old Days, from the Time of the Stuarts to Victoria' (1886; new edit. 1892), and edited R. H. Gronow's 'Reminiscences' with illustrations 'made up' from contemporary prints (1889); Vuillier's 'History of Dancing,' to which he contributed a sketch of dancing in England (1898); 'Pictorial Pickwickiana: Charles Dickens and his Illustrators' (2 vols. 1899); and Goldsmith's 'Vicar of Wakefield,' including Forster's essay on the story (1903).
Grego, who was always ready to lend prints and drawings for public exhibitions, occupied much of his time in organising exhibitions, chiefly of 'English Humorists in Art.' He was himself facile with his pencil, doing much work as a designer of theatrical costumes, and etching the designs of others. He invented a system of reproducing eighteenth-century colour prints in such exact facsimile that they have often been mistaken for originals. He was a director of Carl Hentschel, Ltd., photo-engravers, 1899-1908, and a substantial shareholder in the firm of Kegan Paul & Co. (of which company he was a director from Jan. 1903 till his death) and of the 'Graphic' Company. He died unmarried on 24 Jan. 1908 at 23 Granville Square, where he was born and which he occupied all his life. His vast accumulations of prints, drawings, and books were dispersed on his death (at Christie's 28 April and 4 June 1908, and at Puttick and Simpson's April, June, and July 1908). Jules Bastien-Lepage drew a small head of Grego in pen and ink on a visit to London, about 1880-1.
[The Times, 28 Jan. 1908; Athenæum, 2 Feb. 1908; Graphic, 1 Feb. 1908 (with portrait from a photo); information kindly supplied by his only sister, Mrs. Bruce-Johnston, by Mr. Thomas J. Barrafct, and by Mr. H. Thornber.]