JP Weaver’s origins began in the late 19th century when 18-year-old Joseph Pearce Weaver founded his eponymous business in West Derby, Lancashire County, England. His father George was a master carver and gilder under who’s tutelage Joseph’s craft was honed. Numerous ecclesiastical and public projects imbued father and son with a reputation of “most excellent and brilliant workmanship.” After his father’s illness, Joseph threw himself headlong into his small local business, and soon the young man found himself taking on much larger commissions throughout greater London. In 1886 when Joseph turned 20, the same year the Statue of Liberty was officially dedicated in New York Harbor, the allure of living and working in the United States with its magnificent prospects and opportunities drew him across the Atlantic.

Joseph found fertile ground for business in “The Colonies” and was very quickly in much demand with commissions and projects amidst the halcyon of America’s gilded age. During this time, he met and married the woman who would become his lifelong companion, blue blood and socialite Agnes E. Burns. By the early 1900’s, Los Angeles was experiencing a significant business boom, fueled by agricultural industries, particularly citrus fruits, and the opening of the Panama Canal. The city was also home to early banking institutions, like the Bank of Italy (precursor to Bank of America), which was facilitating business and prodigious growth. Also, filmmakers were beginning to move to Los Angeles to avoid legal challenges related to patents for motion picture equipment. Ever the wanderlust, Joseph brought his wife Agnes to Los Angeles to pursue the “California Dream”, formally listing his business in 1914 as JP Weaver Company.

Joseph and Agnes’ timing with their move to Los Angeles was fortuitous. The film industry was drawing the elite from New York’s producers and directors to California’s warm climate, varied terrain, and relatively cheap land, in addition to the avoidance of paying motion picture patent rights to the Thomas Edison Company. Hollywood’s Golden Era was about to commence. And with it, the movie sets were becoming increasingly elaborate, reflecting the era's fascination with Art Deco and other design styles. Studios invested heavily in creating detailed backdrops for both stage productions and elaborate "movie prologues" presented before films. These prologues, a hybrid form of performance, often featured large chorus lines, acrobats, and other performers against elaborate sets. And who better to design and decorate these sets than JP Weaver. Joseph and Agnes had indeed struck California gold.

A self made man, Joseph was loath hire help for his business. But as his workload proliferated, it became apparent he was going to need a staff. Joseph had struck up a friendship with a neighbor of his, Robert McKenzie, who happened to have a penchant for plaster and carpentry. Joseph thought of hiring Robert into his business; problem was Robert was about to be shipped off to Europe to fight in World War I. Joseph assured his friend there would be a position for him on his return and after the armistice, Joseph and Robert became partners in the JP Weaver Company. Business boomed and the two took on countless projects including interiors for the burgeoning mansions sprouting from Beverly Hills all the way to the beaches at Santa Monica; this on top of their mainstay income for set design and construction for the major studios. The Roaring Twenties were just that for the JP Weaver Company. Talent and hard work had paid off well for Joseph and Robert.

The 1930’s of course ushered in the Great Depression, and with it mass unemployment, bank failures, and a decline in construction spending. This did not prove fatal for JP Weaver Company, but business certainly fell off. Income from the movie industry kept their doors open, yet Joseph and Robert were struggling financially nonetheless. However the company would suffer another blow when Joseph died suddenly in 1936. Now the weight of the company fell squarely on the shoulders of Robert McKenzie. For the next four decades he alone ran the company, curtailing the work for the studios and scaling back the larger commissions. Most of the work during this period was for furniture appliqué with composition ornament in addition to picture frames.

In the late 1960’s, Lenna Tyler Kast, a naturally gifted designer who developed a fascination with composition ornament, began using ornament from the JP Weaver Company with her son Rob Tyler. Although the company had scaled back considerably from its salad days, Lenna had a grander vision of what could be done with “compo”, and set her plan in motion by slowly buying shares of the company. She had the vision to revive the nearly lost art of producing ornate architectural moulding, reminiscent of the elegance of Versailles. She was successful in acquiring the company in 1980, allowing her to pursue this dream.

Within the trade, composition ornament is affectionately refereed to as “compo”, a decorative art medium that is highly flexible and self-bonding to any interior hard surface. It’s an interior decoration that has been all but lost for centuries. Originated in the Early Italian Renaissance, this fine form of relief ornament is ubiquitous in the palaces and châteaux of Europe, and is still used today with furniture, cabinetry, millwork, ceilings and walls. Our proprietary JP Weaver recipe for compo is something of an industry standard as it affords impeccable and exquisite detail while maintaining a pliability and ease of use for installers and designers. Note during installation and application the compo’s pliability affords the opportunity of “bending” the material to achieve wonderful “undercuts”. The (JP Weaver Composition Ornament Handbook) boasts over 10 Thousand remarkably vivid printed photos, pictured in perfect 1/4 scale. This handbook fostered a revolution in ornamental design in that the images, having a true 1/4 scale, offered the designer the ability to copy the pages, then “cut and paste” mock-ups and final designs; a work-flow quite impossible before the printing of this wonderful volume. The handbook is an invaluable addition to any designer’s library. In addition, our Signature Compo line is beautifully displayed on full scale boards in our showroom in Glendale California.

Lenna revitalized the company by cataloging the inventory of models and moulds and compo with beautiful large format photography and created a compendium of ornament. However she faced a challenge with the compo ornamentation: while in and of itself it was an unparalleled design medium, the intricacy and sheer volume of the parts made the creation of larger scaled compositions somewhat daunting for designers. Having an intimate connection with the vast catalog coupled with their design talents, both Lenna and Stephanie set to task the creation of larger composites (panels, wall components, linears and centerpieces) comprised of the compo elements to be made in a far more durable resin material, without any sacrifice of detail. This was the creation of our Signature Petitsin line. In short, it allows designers and installers to create magnificent ornament interior tableaus on a scale which would be quite impractical to do in compo. Once an adequate collection of these pieces were created, Lenna authored ("The Petitsin Design Handbook", still available and in print today), which has become a ubiquitous standard with elite design firms worldwide.

Lenna got a major break when she won a bid to do restoration work for the California State Capital Building. At this time she enlisted the help of her son Rob Tyler who began to specialize in carving. Later, Lenna would attract the talents of designer Stephanie Croce, a recent graduate from NYU who displayed a magnificent aptitude for design. Lenna fostered Stephanie’s talents in the art and nuances of ornament within interior design, and very quickly Stephanie’s aptitude and skills flourished, constantly discovering both elegant and novel solutions to the design challenges brought in by their newfound clients. Lenna’s step-son Adam Kast, a talented master carpenter, was also brought in to overhaul the company’s plaster cornice crown moulding production. The company’s extant moulds and models were in dismal condition and Adam’s skills were invaluable in revitalizing the plaster catalog, along with fresh and insightful ideas in expanding the collection. Like the phoenix, JP Weaver Company rose from the ashes.

In years following, Lenna had an idea to supplement the JP Weaver line with ornament that would be resin based. The demands of the current construction industry were such that composition ornament, although easy to use and apply, was not the best economical solution. If the ornamental compositions were made of resin, this would allow for much large and far more durable elements to be produced.

So Lenna ushered in her signature “Petitsin” line of mouldings (eponymously named after her father, Gregory Alexsis Ptitsin). The JP Weaver Signature “Petitsin” line of mouldings have become something of a standard within the design industry and can be found in projects ranging from the stateroom interiors of 1997 film “Titanic,” to the lobby of Plaza Hotel in New York, to Mar-A-Lago’s Grand Ballroom in Florida.

In 1993 JP Weaver moved into its current home at 941 Air Way in Glendale, California, where it’s become established as the international standard for the design and making of interior ornamental and plaster mouldings. In 2023 we sadly lost the company’s matriarch Lenna Tyler Kast at the age of 93. Her hard work and passion forever imbued in the company’s ethos. And now the next generation of JP Weaver, President Robert T. Tyler, Senior Designer Stephanie Croce, and Project Supervisor Adam Kast, carries the torch forward for the next chapter of it’s legacy.