The Arts & Crafts Home

Furniture Research

Mark Golding and Paul Shutler have worked to create these pages for use by those interested in the development of furniture design and manufacture in the 19th and 20th centuries in Great Britain. Paul Shutler is a freelance furniture historian and researcher, and can be contacted via Paul Shutler

FOR SALE & WANTED

We are seeking good examples of Furniture made by Lamb of Manchester, Gillows, Holland & Sons, Howard & Sons, Collinson and Lock, Morris & Company, Heal's of London, Jackson & Graham, The Guild of Handicraft, William Watt, Liberty & Co.

A DIRECTORY OF 19TH & 20TH CENTURY BRITISH FURNITURE MAKERS AND RETAILERS

We are attempting build a reasonably comprehensive directory of 19th and 20th century British furniture makers and retailers. Paul Shutler, a freelance furniture researcher and historian is the leading light behind this project, and we could not have come this far without referring to publications by both THE FURNITURE HISTORY SOCIETY and the REGIONAL FURNITURE SOCIETY.

If you can add any information to this directory (makers, retailers, dates, biographies, web links, images of marks/stamps/labels and other information) we would be extremely grateful, and we will gladly acknowledge your support and help. Also, please keep up informed of any mistakes we make! Email mark@achome.co.uk

Below the directory you will find a series of biographical essays of several of the major 19th Century British furniture companies. If you wish to publish your essay, we will post and credit your research.

ALEXANDER, H & AG & CO
Steam Chair Factory, Rotherglen, Glasgow, 1900's

ANGUS, WM & CO
Cabinet Makers, London, c1900

ARROWSMITH, A J
19th Century furniture makers, 80 New Bond Street, London.

BAKER OAKFORDBRIDGE
19th Century cabinet-maker, Oakford, Devon.

BARKER J & CO LTD
Antique dealer, furniture maker, Kensington High Street, London.

BARRETT W
19th and 20th century furniture makers, Newland Street, High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire.

BARLOW & CO
19th and 20th century furniture makers, Oakridge Road, High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire.

BARLTETT WM & SON LTD
19th and 20th century furniture makers, Grafton Street, High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire.

BATEMAN, WILLIAM

BAVERSTOCK, H
Folding Chairs, Hackney, London 1890's

BAYLEY & BLEW
19th Century furniture makers, Cockspur Street, London.

BELL & COUPLAND
19th Century furniture maker, Preston, Lancashire.

BERTRAM & SON
19th Century furniture makers, 100 Dean Street, London.

BETTRIDGE & CO
19th century cabinet makers, Birmingham, exhibited at the 1862 International Exhibition.

BIRCH WILLIAM
19th century cabinet makers and chair makers, Leigh Street, High Wycombe.

BIRCH & ALPE LTD
19th and 20th century furniture makers, Kitchener Road, High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire.

BLAIN A & SON
19th Century furniture makers, Liverpool.

BLYTH & SONS
Furniture Makers, Finsbury, London 1870-80

I’m a descendant of David Blyth who started the firm in the early 1800’s – it was later carried on by his son James, and eventually closed in the early 1900’s. The firm’s primary address was 4-7 Chiswell Street in London. At one point they held warrants as suppliers to the Admiralty and the King of Siam (or at least that’s what their letterhead said…). They apparently opened a 2nd location in Liverpool for a period of time. Information courtesy of Jennifer Wiber (Toronto Canada)

BRETT, ARTHUR
19th and 20th Century furniture makers, Norwich.

BRIDGES
Early 19th Century chair makers.

BROOKS, HENRY & CO

BROWN, R A
20th Century box makers.

BRUNSWICK M
19th century cabinet makers, London, exhibited at the 1862 International Exhibition.

CALDECOTT
19th Century cabinet makers, London, exhibited at the 1851 Crystal Palace Exhibition.

CALLAGHAN, V
19th Century maker of astronomy chairs, 28a New Bond Street, London.

CASTLE & ABBOTT
19th and 20th century furniture makers, Nutfield Lane, High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire.

CASTLE BROS
19th and 20th century furniture makers, Upper Desborough Park Road, High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire.

CHAPMAN BROTHERS
20th Century mirror and frame makers, 241, Kings Road, Chelsea, London.

CLARK J
19th and 20th century furniture makers, Abercrombie Avenue, High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire.

COALBROOKDALE
19th Century cast iron founders, Coalbrookdale, Shropshire.

COLLIER & PLUNKNETT
19th Century furniture makers, Warwick, Warwickshire.

COLLINSON & LOCK
19th Century cabinet makers, St Bride Street, London.

COOKES
19th century cabinet makers and carvers, Warwick, exhibited at the 1851 Crystal Palace Exhibition.

COX & SON LTD
19th and 20th century furniture makers, Oxford Road, High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire.

COX & YEMAN
19th Century billiard equipment makers, London

CRACE
19th Century cabinet makers, Wigmore Street, London

CRACE AND MAZOROZ
19th Century cabinet makers, Wigmore Street, London

DOVESTONE, BIRD & HULL
19th Century cabinet makers, Manchester

DOVESTONE, DAVEY, HULL & CO
19th Century cabinet makers, Manchester

DRUCE & CO
19th Century furniture makers and antique dealers, Baker Street, Portman Square, London.

DYER & WATTS
19th century cabinet makers, London, exhibited at the 1862 International Exhibition.

EDWARDS & ROBERTS
19th and 20th Century cabinet makers, 21 Wardour Street, London.

ELLIS WALTER E
19th and 20th century furniture makers, West End Road, High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire.

ELLMORE, WT & SON
Cane Furniture, Leicester, 1890's

ENGLAND
19th century cabinet makers, Leeds, exhibited at the 1851 Crystal Palace Exhibition.

EVANS J & SON
19th and 20th century furniture makers, Abercrombie Avenue, High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire.

EVANS BROS
19th and 20th century furniture makers, Kitchener Road, High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire.

FENTLEMAN & SONS
20th century cabinet makers, Dock Street, Aldgate, London.

FILMER & SONS
19th century cabinet makers, London, exhibited at the 1862 International Exhibition.

FORSYTH J
19th century cabinet makers, London, exhibited at the 1862 International Exhibition.

FORWARD & DONELLY LTD
19th and 20th century furniture makers, Temple End, High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire.

FOX T
19th century cabinet makers, London, exhibited at the 1851 Crystal Palace Exhibition.

FREEMAN
19th Century cabinet makers, 10 London Street, Norwich.

FRY & CO
19th century cabinet makers, Dublin, exhibited at the 1862 International Exhibition.

FURNITURE INDUSTRIES LTD
19th and 20th century furniture makers, London Road, High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire.

FURLONG, JOHN
19th Century cabinet makers, 136-8, Powis Street, Woolwich, London.

GARNETT, R
19th Century cabinet makers, Warrington, Cheshire

GEORGE & SONS
19th century cabinet makers, London, exhibited at the 1862 International Exhibition.

GILLOW & CO
19th and 20th Century cabinet makers and antique dealers, Lancaster, Lancashire and London.

GILLOWS
19th and 20th Century cabinet makers, Lancaster, Lancashire.

GLENISTER THOMAS LTD
19th and 20th century furniture makers, Temple Works, High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire.

GOMME E
19th and 20th century furniture makers, Leigh Street, High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire.

GOODALL, LAMB & HEIGHWAY
Cabinet makers and Upholsterers, Manchester. Late 19th early 20th century cabinet makers, Manchester, Lancashire.

GOODEARL B & SONS
19th and 20th century furniture makers, Desborough Road, High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire.

GOODEARL HY & SONS
19th and 20th century furniture makers, West End Road, High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire.

GOODEARL BROS LTD
19th and 20th century furniture makers, Mendy Street, High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire.

GRANVILLE & CO LTD
19th and 20th century furniture makers, Unity Works, Ogilvie Road, High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire.

GREGORY & CO.
19th Century cabinet makers, Regent Street, London.

GRIEW J & CO
19th century cabinet makers and carver, Chatham Place, Hackney, London

GRIFFITHS, ROY
20th Century cabinet maker, Wisbech.

GRUBB
19th century cabinet makers, Banbury, exhibited at the 1851 Crystal Palace Exhibition.

GUILD OF HANDICRAFT
19th Century furniture makers, Chipping Camden, Gloucestershire

GUTTA PERCHA COMPANY
19th century cabinet makers, London, exhibited at the 1851 Crystal Palace Exhibition.

HAMFORD BROTHERS
19th Century cabinet makers, upholsterers and trunk-makers, 9 Cross Street, Ryde, Isle of Wight

HAMILTON
20th Century garden furniture maker, London.

HAMPTON & SONS LTD
19th and 20th century cabinet makers and antique dealers, Pall Mall east, London.

HANDS & SON
19th and 20th century furniture makers, 36 Dashwood Avenue, High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire.

HARRISON & SON
19th Century cabinet makers, Burnley and Blackburn, Lancashire.

HAYBALL
19th century cabinet makers, Sheffield, exhibited at the 1851 Crystal Palace Exhibition.

HEAL & SON
19th and 20th Century cabinet makers, Tottenham Court Road, London.

HEALY W H LTD
19th and 20th century furniture makers, London Road, High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire.

HENRY, JS
Cabinet Makers, 287-9 Old Street, London, 1890's

HERRMANN, H.
Steamers, Dod Street, Limehouse, London, 1890's

HINKS, HENRY
Early 19th Century cabinet makers, Gosport.

HINDLEY & SONS
19th Century cabinet makers, 64 Oxford Street, London.

HOLLAND & SONS
19th Century cabinet makers, Royal Warrant Holders, Marylebone Road, London.

HOWARD & SONS
19th Century cabinet and chair makers, Royal Warrant Holders, parquet floor manufacturers, decorators, upholsterers and antique dealers, Berners Street, London.

HOWLAND R & SONS LTD
19th and 20th century furniture makers, Denmark Street, High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire.

HOWLAND R J & CO LTD
19th and 20th century furniture makers, Oakmead, High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire.

HUNTER W & J
19th century cabinet makers, London, exhibited at the 1851 Crystal Palace Exhibition.

HUTTON, WILLIAM
19th Century chair maker, Barnstable, Devon.

INGLEDEW
19th century cabinet makers, London, exhibited at the 1862 International Exhibition.

JACKSON & GRAHAM
19th Century cabinet makers, 37 - 38 Oxford Street, London.

JAMAR, S
19th Century cabinet makers, Gerard Street, London.

JAMES, ROBERT
19th Century cabinet makers, 35 Broad Street, Bristol.

JANCOVSKY
19th century cabinet makers, York, exhibited at the 1851 Crystal Palace Exhibition.

JENKS & WOOD
20th Century cabinet makers.

JENNENS & BETTRIDGE
19th Century papier mache furniture makers, Birmingham, West Midlands.

JEWELL, S & H
19th Century cabinet makers, 131-2 High Holborn, London.

JOHNSTONE & JEANES
19th century cabinet makers, London, exhibited at the 1862 International Exhibition.

JONES
19th century cabinet makers, Dublin , exhibited at the 1851 Crystal Palace Exhibition.

JOUBERT
19th century cabinet makers, London, exhibited at the 1862 International Exhibition.

JOYNSON HOLLAND & CO
19th and 20th century furniture makers, Abercrombie Avenue, High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire.

KAUFMAN & CO
Cabinet Makers, Weaste, nr Manchester 1890's

KENDALL T H
19th century cabinet makers, Warwick, exhibited at the 1862 International Exhibition.

KENDELL, J & CO
19th Century chair makers, Maney.

KNIGHT T
19th century cabinet makers, Bath, exhibited at the 1862 International Exhibition.

LAMB J OF MANCHESTER
19th Century cabinet makers, Manchester, Lancashire.

LANGLEY, G
19th Century cabinet makers, 226 Whitechapel, London.

LAWES, T & CO
Cabinet maskers, Upholsterers, Timber and Feather Merchants, 65 City Road, London, 1880's

LAZARUS L & SONS
19th and 20th century cabinet makers, Lorenco road, Tottenham London.

LECAND
19th century cabinet makers, London, exhibited at the 1851 Crystal Palace Exhibition.

LEUCHARS
19th Century box makers, 38 Piccadilly, London.

LENYGON & MORANT
20th Century chair makers, decorators and antique dealers, 48 South Audley Street, London.

LEVEIN
19th century cabinet makers, London, exhibited at the 1851 Crystal Palace Exhibition.

LIBERTY & CO
19th and 20th Century Furniture retailers and decorators, Regent Street, London.

LINLEY, DAVID
20th Century cabinet makers, Pimlico Road, London.

LITCHFIELD & RADCLIFFE
19th century cabinet makers, London, exhibited at the 1862 International Exhibition.

LUND, THOMAS
19th Century box makers, Cornhill, London

MADDOX, GEORGE
Upholsterer, 21 Baker Street, London, 1860-85, Manufactory 21 Blandford Mews

MAKEPEACE, JOHN
20th and 21st Century cabinet makers, Dorset.

MANUEL, JOHN & SONS
19th Century cabinet makers, Sheffield, Yorkshire.

MAPLE & CO
19th and 20th Century cabinet makers, antique dealers and decorators, Tottenham Court Road, London.

MARSH & JONES
19th Century cabinet makers, Leeds, Yorkshire.

MARSH, JONES & CRIBB (LATE KENDELL & CO)
19th Century cabinet makers, Leeds, Yorkshire.

MAYER & BEKENN
19th Century cabinet makers, St. Mary's Square, Birmingham.

McCREA
19th century cabinet makers, Halifax, exhibited at the 1851 Crystal Palace Exhibition.

MEIN, J
19th Century cabinet makers, Roxbourgh, Kelso.

MELLIER & CO
19th Century cabinet makers, Margaret Street, London.

MILNE W & J
19th Century box makers, 126 Princess Street, Edinburgh.

MINTER, G
19th Century chair makers, 33 Gerard Street, London.

MOORE & HUNTON
Cabinet Makers and Upholsterers, 59-64 Worship Street and 107-112 Paul Street, London 1880's

MORANT
19th century cabinet makers, London, exhibited at the 1851 Crystal Palace Exhibition.

MORRIS & CO
19th and 20th century cabinet makers and decorators, Oxford Street, London

NEEDHAM, WF
Bamboo Furniture Manufacturer, Birmingham, 1880's

NICOLL
19th century cabinet makers, London, exhibited at the 1851 Crystal Palace Exhibition.

NORMAN & STACEY
19th and 20th century cabinet makers and retailers, Tottenham Court Road, London.

NORTH, BENJAMIN & SON
Chair makers, High Wycombe

NOSOTTI Charles
19th century cabinet makers and frame makers, London, exhibited at the 1862 International Exhibition. Charles Nossotti, 398,399 Oxford St, originated in Milan and listed as a carver/gilder, recorded in Westminster London in 1831, known as the 'looking glass manufactory'. Collaborating with Howard and Sons for the 1862 Exhibition.

PALMER
19th century cabinet makers, Bath, exhibited at the 1851 Crystal Palace Exhibition.

POOLE & MACGILLIVRAY
19th century cabinet makers, London, exhibited at the 1862 International Exhibition.

PRATT & PRINCE
19th century cabinet makers, Bradford, Yorkshire.

PRIEST, W
19th Century cabinet makers, 1 and 2 Tudor Street, Blackfriars, London.

RADLEY E
19th century cabinet makers, London, exhibited at the 1862 International Exhibition.

REID, JOHN
19th Century cabinet makers, 47 Meadow Road, Leeds, Yorkshire.

RICHARDSON, W
19th Century cabinet makers, 20 Mary Street, Dublin.

RIDGE J
19th century cabinet makers, 91 Church Street, Croydon.

ROBERTSON & SON
Cabinet maker, Alnwick, 1880's

ROGERS & DEAR
19th century cabinet makers, London, exhibited at the 1851 Crystal Palace Exhibition.

ROSSITER, R
19th Century cabinet makers, South Moulton, Devon.

SCOTT J & T
19th century cabinet makers, Edinburgh, exhibited at the 1862 International Exhibition.

SEDDON, T & G
19th Century cabinet makers, Aldersgate Street, London.

SEDLEY
19th century cabinet makers, London, exhibited at the 1862 International Exhibition.

SHAPLAND & PETTER.
19th and 20th Century cabinet makers, Barnstable, Devon.

SHARD J & CO
19th and 20th century cabinet makers and snooker cue makers, Hendon, Nort London.

SHOOLBRED, JAMES
19th Century cabinet makers, Tottenham Court Road, London.

SIMPOLES
19th Century cabinet makers, Manchester, Lancashire.

SIMSON, GEORGE
19th Century cabinet maker, Churchyard, London.

SKERRITT, H
19th Century cabinet and mangle maker, Old Church Yard, Manchester.

SLATER, EDWARD
19th Century chair makers, 2 Queens Buildings, Brompton, London.

SMEE WILLIAM A & S
19th century cabinet makers, upholsterers, carpet and bedding warehouse, 6 Finsbury Road, London and Little Moorfields, London.

SNELL
19th century cabinet makers, London, exhibited at the 1851 Crystal Palace Exhibition.

SOPWITH AND CO LTD
19th and early 20th, Newcastle upon Tyne.

SPENCER, J
19th Century chair maker.

SPILLMAN & CO
19th Century cabinet makers, St Martins Lane, London.

STEVENS J
19th century cabinet makers, Taunton, exhibited at the 1851 Crystal Palace Exhibition.

STOREY & TRIGGS
19th century cabinet makers and antique dealers, Queen Victoria Street, London.

STRAHAN & CO
19th century cabinet makers, Dublin, exhibited at the 1862 International Exhibition.

TAYLOR, JOHN
19th Century cabinet makers, Edinburgh.

TILLMAN, WILLIAM
20th Century cabinet makers, London.

TRAPNELL & SON
19th century cabinet makers, Bristol, exhibited at the 1851 Crystal Palace Exhibition.

TROLLOPE & SONS
19th Century cabinet makers, Parliament Street, London.

TROTTER, WILLIAM
19th Century cabinet makers, Edinburgh.

TWEEDY T H
19th century cabinet makers, Newcastle on Tyne, exhibited at the 1862 International Exhibition.

VAUGHAN & SON
19th and 20th century furniture makers, 330c, Old Street, London.

WARING J
19th and 20th Century cabinet makers, (1835 - 1903) Lancaster, Lancashire, showroom in Oxford Circus, London, merged with Gillow in 1903.

WARING AND GILLOW
20th Century cabinet makers (1903 - 1986)

WATT, WILLIAM
19th Century cabinet makers, London.

WERTHEIMER S
19th century cabinet makers, London, exhibited at the 1862 International Exhibition.

WHITE J P
19th and 20th century fine and garden furniture makers, Pyghtle Works, Bedford.

WHYNTALL, THOMAS
19th Century cabinet makers, Cripplegate, London.

WHYTOCK & CO
19th century cabinet makers, Edinburgh, exhibited at the 1862 International Exhibition.

WHYTOCK & REID
19th and 20th Century cabinet makers, Edinburgh.

WILKINSON C
19th Century cabinet makers, Ludgate Hill, London

WINTER, JAMES & SONS
19th Century cabinet makers, 101 Wardour Street, London.

WOOD & HEMMONS
19th and 20th century cabinet makers and antique dealers, Redcliffe Street, Bristol.

WRIGHT & MANSFIELD
19th Century cabinet makers, London.

WYLIE & LOCHHEAD
19th Century cabinet makers, Glasgow.

YOUNG, ALEXANDER
19th and 20th Century cabinet makers, North Shields.

A HISTORY OF HOLLAND AND SONS

During the 1850's Holland and Sons undertook 300 separate Government Commissions as well as their other work, and designed in almost every style fashionable. They retained Pugin's designs, and adapted them whilst furnishing Mr. Speaker's House in the 1850s and for gothic rooms elsewhere.

Holland and Sons employed some of the top designers at this time, including Professor Gottfried Semper, Alfred Lormier, Henry Whitaker, T.R. Macquoid, J.R. Collings, G.E. Street and Bruce Talbert, who were used on better commissions, and greatly helped Holland to keep its top position.

It is fascinating to see how many styles Holland and Sons' architects and designers could produce between them, and with such confidence and perfection, from the grand gothic of New Palace Westminster, the pale timbers of Osborne House, the French Exhibition styles, and the Thornton Commission in Sidmouth, Grecian after Professor Semper (Plates XI and XII) Jacobean (Plate IX), the monumental, and the aesthetic with cabinets by Talbert.
To complement these styles many fine timbers were used like Oak, Walnut, Satinwood, Ebony, Hungarian Ash, Tulipwood and Maple, with marquetry and bronzed or decorated, to name some; often different marbles were used to complement the wood or surroundings. Some of the rich surfaces were enhanced by mounts in ormolu, inlay, marquetry and carving; sometimes whole suites of furniture for every style of room were made, including curtains, chair covers, carpets and mirrors, with chairs and dining room furniture made of walnut, oak, mahogany and birch. All the display cases for the South Kensington Museum were supplied to specific designs.

Holland and Sons, as did other London cabinet makers in this era, continued the tradition that English carcase work and construction was easily the finest in the world; whilst mahogany had lost favour as a veneer, it was used extensively for drawer linings in top furniture, and as a secondary wood whenever appropriate; consequently the veneers and marquetry remain so stable that even the surface can still be undisturbed allowing patina to accumulate; joints, tenons and dovetails stay tight, due to perfect cabinetwork, seasoned timber and practical design.

It should be noted that much of Hollands' production was of a lesser, bread and butter nature (Plate IX is a well designed example) and even bedroom and servants furniture were supplied. Also services of a day to day nature were on offer to favoured clients, including the unblocking of drains!

Grand funerals were a feature of Victorian life as was mourning, and Holland arranged Wellington's State Funeral at a cost in excess of £1,000.

Whilst our fine Holland and Sons exhibits date from the 1850s and 1860s, arguably their zenith, the firm enjoyed a long and successful span from 1815 to 1968.

The details below come from London Directories of the times, and give the dates and addresses of the business.

1815 Taprell and Holland, 25 Gt. Pultenay St.

1817 Taprell and Holland, 25 Gt. Pultenay St, and 19 Marylebone Street.

1826 Taprell and Holland, 19 Marylebone Street.

1832 Taprell and Holland, 19 Marylebone St, and 6 Silver St. (works).

1843 Holland and Sons, 19 Marylebone St, and 38 Broad St. (works).

1850 Holland and Sons, 19 Marylebone St, Ranelagh Works, Lower Belgrave St.

1852 Holland and Sons, Ranelagh Works, 19 Marylebone St, and 23 Mount St.
(Holland and Son merged with Thomas Dowbiggin and Sons at 23 Mount St. giving up their Marylebone premises.)

1874 Holland and Sons, 23 Mount St, 4 Ebury St and 44 Gillingham St.

(1890 Morris & Co bought Ebury St Works)

1895 Thomas Dowbiggin ceased trading.

1904 Holland and Sons "Furniture Makers, Cabinetmakers, Upholsters, Surveyors, House and Estate Agents, 9 Mount St, and Ranelagh Works, Chapter St.

1968 Closed down 7th October.

Almost complete records were preserved and are kept at the Archive of Art and Design, London.

HOLLAND AND SONS - ROYAL COMMISSIONS.

The Daybooks contain extensive supplies made to 5 Royal residences - Osborne House, Sandringham, Balmoral, Windsor Castle and, when Prince Edward Albert was given Marlborough House as his official residence, Holland and Sons refurnished it throughout.

Holland and Sons arranged the funeral of Prince Albert with the Royal household.

Thomas Dowbiggin of Mount Street (later Holland and Sons) supplied the State Throne with dais and canopy in 1837 for Victoria's Coronation, and it is in the Buckingham Palace Throne Room today.

In 1877 furniture was supplied to the Emperor of Austria for his steam yacht.
For further reading try: "Royal Victorian Furniture Maker" by Edward Joy: Burlington Magazine - Nov. 1969 pp. 677-687.

EXHIBITIONS.

Holland and Sons in order to remain pre-eminent were actively showing specially designed furniture in exhibitions at home and abroad. These included the following recorded items:

1851 - The Great Exhibition, Crystal Palace, London.
A Royal cabinet of massive proportions in the renaissance style, centred round an integral British marble fireplace, and made of British woods, and minerals.

1855 -The International Exhibition, Paris.
A renaissance collectors' cabinet of ebony, the door inset with porcelain plaques, having gilt metal mounts, and gallery, supported on a stand with 4 Grecian bronzed legs. Designed by Professor Gottfried Semper, and purchased by the South Kensington museum in 1860.

1862 - International Exhibition, London.
A Louis XVI style cabinet in thuyawood with marquetry panels and ormolu mounts to the central door, flanked by bookshelves. Also a profusely inlaid and marquetry silverwood loo table with guilloche pattern, and hilt mounts.

1867 - Universal Exhibition, Paris.
An art cabinet or dressoir of oak inlaid with exotic wood and gilt brass strap hinges, the whole surmounted by pinnacles and designed by Bruce Talbert.

1872 - Annual International Exhibition.
An inlaid and ebony cabinet with dead game inlay and medallions of ivory.

1878 - Paris Universal Exhibition.
A satinwood cabinet inlaid in the Adam revival taste.

This information is by courtesy of The Country Seat.

A HISTORY OF GILLOWS OF LANCASTER and WARING & GILLOW

1731-1986

A Company History

The firm of Gillows of Lancaster can be traced back to Robert Gillow (1704-72) in 1730, having served an apprenticeship as a joiner. During the 1730's he began to exploit the lucrative West Indies trade exporting mahogany furniture and importing rum and sugar. Following his death in 1772, the business was continued by his two sons, Richard (1734-1811) and Robert (1745-93). In 1764 a London branch of Gillows was established at 176 Oxford Road, now Oxford Street, by Thomas Gillow and William Taylor. The firm rapidly established a reputation for supplying high quality furniture to the richest families in the country.

During the final years of the 19th century the company ran into financial difficulty and from 1897 began a loose financial arrangement with Waring of Liverpool, an arrangement legally ratified by the establishment of Waring and Gillow in 1903. Warings of Liverpool were founded by John Waring, who arrived in the city from Belfast in 1835 and established a wholesale cabinet making business. He was succeeded by his son Samuel James Waring who rapidly expanded the business during the 1880's, furnishing hotels and public buildings throughout Europe. He also founded Waning-White Building Company which built the Liverpool Corn Exchange, Selfridge's department store and the Ritz Hotel.

Gillows had established a reputation for the outfitting of luxury yachts and liners, including the Royal Yacht "Victoria and Albert", liners "Lusitania", "Heliopolis" and "Cairo", RMS "Queen Mary" (1934) and "Queen Elizabeth" (1946) for Cunard. During the First World War the Lancaster factory was turned over to war production, making ammunition chests for the Navy and propellers for De Havilland DH9 aircraft and during World War Two produced parts for gliders and the Mosquito aircraft, while kit-bags, tents and camouflage nets were made by the upholstery department. However, the business of the firm began to decline and the Lancaster workshops closed on 31 March 1962. In 1980 Waring and Gillow joined with the cabinet making firm Maple & Co, to become Maple, Waring and Gillow, subsequently part of Allied Maples Group Ltd, which included Allied Carpets.

Making numbers and stamps -

The making numbers were stamped on the pieces of furniture when they did not form part of a special order. The letter L placed before the number indicates that the piece was manufactured at the Lancaster factory.

The stamp GILLOWS LANCASTER first appeared on furniture between 1780 and 1790. By the middle of the 19th Century GILLOW is found stamped on pieces in 2.5mm letters. By the end of the 19th Century GILLOW & Co is often found, lightly impressed in letters 3mm high. Waring and Gillow instituted a thin stamped brass name plate, a practice that was continued up to the 1950's.

Marks are generally found on the top edges of drawers, on the underside of lids or table tops, on the right hand back leg of early chairs and under the front edge of the seat of later chairs. Very often the pencilled signature of the craftsman making the piece can be found on the underside of a drawer.
Waring and Gillow records.

A HISTORY OF COLLINSON & LOCK

'Art Furnishers', founded with the partnership of F.G. Collinson and G.J. Lock, former employees of Jackson & Graham. Designers employed by the firm included T.E. Collcutt, the architect of their premises; E.W. Godwin, who was paid a retainer to produce exclusive designs for the company from 1872 to 1874, H.W. Batley and Stephen Webb. They made furniture for the new Law Courts to designs by G.E. Street, along with Gillows and Holland & Sons, and began decoration of the Savoy Theatre in 1881. Jackson & Graham was taken over in 1885, at the time when the firm had moved to Oxford Street and begun to focus on expensive commissions for grandiose London houses. The change of direction was not a success, and the firm was taken over by Gillows in 1897.

The firm of Collinson & Lock was established in London in the third quarter of the 19th century and quickly achieved both commercial success and a leading position in the field of design. In 1871 the firm issued an impressive illustrated catalogue of 'Artistic Furniture', with plates by J. Moyr Smith, assistant to Christopher Dresser, and in 1873 was trading from extensive newly built premises in St Bride Street. The firm continued to produce very high quality items of furniture and soon began to experiment with new materials and designs, becoming especially renowned for their distinctive combinations of rosewood and ivory and their intricate Italianate arabesques, traditional figures and scrolling foliage. This form of decoration clearly points toward the involvement of Stephen Webb, Collinson & Locks chief designer who was later appointed Professor of Sculpture at the Royal College of Art.

Information from 19th Century Design by Michael Whiteway.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF HOWARD & SONS, BERNER STREET, LONDON
By Paul A. Shutler

In 1820 John Howard started trading at 24 Lemon St, London, as a 'Cabinet Manufacturer'. He was to stay there for nine years until he moved premises to 27 Great Alie St. and then later in 1832 he was to move the small distance to 34 Great Alie St where he would stay and open an upholstery workshop/showroom at 36 Red lion St until 1845 (the Red Lion premises were only used for one year).

It wasn't until 1848 after a short period of non-trading that the company was to take on part of the address more familiar with the company. In 1848 John Howard and Sons started trading at 22 Berners St as 'Cabinet Maker, Upholsterer and Decorator'.
In 1853 John Howard expanded the business into 26 Berners St.

From 1861-89 and 1865-68 there were workshops at Tottenham St, Charlotte Mews and Fitzroy Sq respectively. After Crystal Palace 1862 saw the first big break for the company when they won a prize at only the second Exhibition they attended, the prize was for suite of library furniture, of which fig 1 forms a part.

Fig 1, 1862 International Exhibition, Art Journal engraving

In1865 the young George Howard patented a method for veneering walls with a wooden veneer, instead of wall paper or paint, This was to evolve into flooring which prompted George to take out a patent in 1867 on the improved production of parquet flooring. From 1865 Howard and Sons were listed as 'Upholsterers, Cabinet Makers and Parquet Flooring Manufacturers by Steam Power'. A further four patents were subsequently taken out on the manufacture and fixing of parquetry to floors and ceilings in November 1879, July 1880 and July and December 1883.

In 1866 George Howard Patented something that would secure his family's company a place in history, he patented the 'Elastic Seat'. His patent totally re-designed the inside workings of traditional upholstery, creating the superior seat, is what they are now widely known only for.

1872 saw the company's most significant move when they settled at the address 25, 26 and 27 Berners St, this was only after they consolidated their workshops in 1869 to the Cleveland Works in Cleveland St. These addresses were to remain unchanged until 1935. Howard and sons were to exhibit and win prizes from this address at the 1878 International Exhibition, the 1894 Antwerp Exhibition and win 1 silver and 2 gold medals at the 1900 Paris Exhibition.

Howard and Sons became a limited company in 1899, and advertised in 1920 as manufacturers of 'Parquet Floors by Electric Power', and were awarded the first of their royal warrants in 1901.

In 1935 Howard and Sons traded from 31 Old Burlington St where they produced mainly upholstered furniture and then ceased trading in 1947. This was the end of the cabinet making side of the firm under the name 'Howard', as after seven years of silence in 1954 the well established house decorators Lenygon and Morant Ltd advertised as being 'Makers of Howard Chairs and Sofas' from their address at 48 South Audley St, this lasted until 1959 when the name was once again silent. Chairs that follow George Howard's patent are today available at 30 Lyme St from 'Howard Chairs Ltd'.

Howard and Sons would make identification easier by marking their work. Cabinet work would either have paper labels, stamps on later pieces Ivorine labels. Upholstered furniture would have either a name and/or number stamp on the inside of the back foot, a paper label on the hessian or a name stamp on the castor cup or wheel. The content i.e. address on the stamp varies depending on the date of the piece.

Instant identification however can be determined by their favoured use of a variation of turning on the front legs, generally speaking the more squashed this turning the later the piece, fig 2 and fig 3, a standard square tapered leg was also used, fig 4.

fig1 fig2 fig3

Some upholstered pieces retain their initialled (fig 5) calico covering, either this or a floral calico (fig 6) were used on all upholstered pieces and were usually covered using a well fitted loose cover also made by Howard and Sons. Both the initialled and floral covers came in a limited range of colours.

fig 5 fig 6

LIBERTY & COMPANY

A History of Liberty Furniture

by Barbara Morris

There is a considerable variety in the furniture and styles of interior decoration produced by Liberty's between 1880 and 1910. On 13 March 1900, Arthur Lasenby Liberty gave a lecture on English Furniture to the Society of Arts. He began his talk with a brief historical survey in which he stated that our finest period of furniture began with the accession of James I, declined during the first half of the 19th century until the `Gothic revival brought us back to first principles of construction and directness of design'. He went on to stress the importance of comfort -- `Better a Windsor chair with comfort than a chaise a la Louis Quinze which makes one's back ache' - also stating that 'Utility, which means fitness, is in itself beauty if rightly understood'. Certainly, apart from some of the Oriental imports, most Liberty furniture was well made and soundly- constructed, but not all of it can he said to measure up to his other dictum of `no unnecessary decoration'.

'Anglo-Oriental' furniture by Liberty & Company

As Godwin had stated in 1876 (The Architect, 23 December), for the first year there was no 'decent furniture', but early in 1880 Liberty's decided to departmentalize their stock, furniture being sold in the `D' Department. The catalogue of oriental goods, Eastern Art Manufactures and Decorative Objects, published in 1881, included a section labeled 'Department D', with carved wooden pieces from China and Japan, together with cane chairs, stools and wastepaper baskets from North Africa. Apart from these imported foods, small items of bamboo furniture such as overmantels and shelves are described as 'Anglo-Oriental'. The catalogue also offered to have 'Special designs made to order drawings post free'. This Anglo-Oriental furniture was made by a French craftsman, Monsieur Ursin Fortier, originally - a basket maker, who had premises in Soho. Liberty's placed their first order with M. Fortier in 1881 and he continued to work exclusively for Liberty's throughout the 1880's, supplying a variety bamboo furniture including chairs and tables, cabinets and writing desks inset with panels of Japanese lacquer, leather paper or 'old fold' matting, and smaller items such as hanging shelves, easels and cakestands. In the 1890s the bamboo furniture was called 'Anglo-Indian' or `Chinese' and the rank widened to include chairs and settees upholstered in 'Djijim Kelims',

As well as being available in the Regent Street shop, some of the early Liberty furniture was shown in the galleries of the Royal School of Needlework in South Kensington. In 1883 The Cabinet Maker and Art Furnisher (vol. III, 1883, p. 182) included Liberty's among its list of' high class firms selling furniture, stating that:

'…some of the cane chairs, carved cabinets, screens and flower stands shown by this enterprising firm are marvels of art and cheapness. Messrs. Liberty are evidently educating their Oriental producers as to the wants of our market and the result is that an English home can he almost entirely furnished with Eastern goods'.

Such furniture, however, would have had a limited appeal, and it became obvious that a wider range should be available. Accordingly, in 1883 Liberty's set up a Furnishing and Decoration Studio under the direction of Leonard Wyburd, a painter who exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1888 to 1905, describing himself as `Painter and Architect'. Wyburd retired from Liberty's in 1903 but continued to work independently describing himself, in an advertisement in the Studio Year Book of 1906, as `Designer and expert adviser in Decorations and Furniture - over 20 years with Liberty & Co.'

A wide variety of furniture in a number of different styles was to be produced by, or for, the Liberty Furniture and Decoration Studio under his direction, but Wyburd's own specialty was `Moorish' furniture and decoration, or Egyptian based designs.

The Thebes stools

Among the earliest items of furniture that can be fully documented were two stools, based on ancient Egyptian prototypes, both called the 'Thebes' and registered in 1884. One, a four-legged stool, usually made in walnut but also in mahogany, with turning on the lower legs and a leather seat attached to the frame with thonging, has the Patent Office Design registration No. 16673. It was hardly an original design, as the ancient Egyptian prototype had already inspired a number of artists and designers earlier in the century. A drawing of a similar Egyptian stool by J.G. Grace, dated 1853, is now in the RIBA, and Ford Madox Brown designed a comparable Egyptian style chair for Holman Hunt in 1857. A number of other artists, including Christopher Dresser and E.W. Godwin, produced drawings of ancient Egyptian furniture in the 1870s. It is tempting to suggest that Godwin, who was then in charge of Liberty's Costume Studio, may have had a hand in the origin of this 'Thebes' stool, for a drawing of the prototype occurs on a page of museum studies in a Godwin sketchbook of about 1875. The stool was to prove immensely popular and was produced over a number of years. One can be seen in a contemporary photograph of Arthur Lasenby Liberty's drawing room at The Lee Manor, the house he lived in from 1892.

The other 'Thebes' stool had three curved legs fixed directly into the dished seat which was carved from a solid piece of wood. It was made both in oak and mahogany, sometimes stained or lacquered red, and bears the registered number 16674. It was to prove equally popular, appearing in the firm's catalogues certainly as late as 1907. It was sold by Samuel Bing when he opened his shop, La Maison de ]'Art Nouveau, in Paris in November 1895 and in a number of other retail outlets in Europe, finding its way into museum collections as far afield as the Nordenfjeldske Kunstindustrimuseum in Trondheim, Norway, which purchased one from Bing in 1896.

It was copied by the Austrian architect Adolf Loos (1870-1933), who claimed it as his own design, and also stained it red. He also stained red the bentwood chairs, made by Kohn, that he designed for the Cafe Museum in Vienna in 1899

Leonard Wyburd and Liberty

Leonard Wyburd's real specialty in the early (lays of the Furniture & Decoration Studio was the `Moorish' style which he employed not only for smoking rooms, but also for drawing rooms, and Liberty's own 'Arab' tea rooms. He was not the first in the field, for Owen Jones (1809-1874) had already executed Moorish designs for furniture and interiors earlier in the century, and the firm of H & J. Cooper of Great Pulteney Street were known for their Arabian and Moorish interiors from about 1875.

Liberty's owned a copy of Les Arts Arabes by Jules Bourgoin, published in 1867, which as Viollet-Le-Duc stated in the preface, "as a practical and complete treatise which reveals a whole new order of composition'. This, no doubt, provided an important source of inspiration for Wyburd. At first he seems mainly to have relied on imported furniture from North Africa, including
inlaid coffee tables, Kharan stands, screens etc., but he soon began to design original 'Moorish' furniture, often including panels of Mushrebiyeh lattice work. J. Moyr-Smith in his book, Ornamental Interiors, Ancient and Modern (1887), reported that Liberty's:

…showed a variety of art furniture in the Moorish or Arab style, most of it being light and elegant in form and moderate in price. The importation of Mushrebiyeh lattice-work from Egypt has probably induced Messrs Liberty & Co to turn this exceedingly artistic material to practical account: they have accordingly in their Kharan chairs made very tasteful use of this fascinating artistic product of Mohammedan Egypt, and Arabic cabinets, Mushrebiyeh screens, camphor or sandalwood tables, punkahs, traciered lamps, and Arabic stained glass windows of beautiful flowing designs and splendid colour are used to produce an Oriental effect.

J Moyr-Smith illustrated a Moorish smoking room as well as an occasional table and rush-seated chair incorporating Mushrebiyeh panels.

A tribute to the quality of Liberty's Moorish style is given in The Cabinet Maker and Art Furnisher for 1 April 1884. Having described the Moorish style of Messrs. Cooper, the writer stated that:

Messrs. Liberty & Co …have fitted up apartments quite in the same style as the foregoing, and, from a commercial point of view, their display is more practical, because their
'adaptation of Arabian Art' - as they define it - is really consistent with inexpensive furnishing. They have applied the style, more or less successfully, to cheap forms of ordinary furniture.,.

The accompanying illustration showed three Anglo-Moresque chairs. The wooden armchair in the centre, which has panels of Musharebeyeh was stained darkish green and was as said to be 'remarkably easy and not uncomely' When made comfortable by the addition of a few cushions. An example of this chair is now in the Cecil Higgins Museum, Bedford. The chair on the left was described as a good model, and the bracket supports to the legs and back were praised as good, constructive features, giving strength to an otherwise rather flimsy design. The third chair, like some of the Thebes stools, was, painted vermilion red, and had a Moorish arch motif cut out of the back, and splayed straight legs. It was described as a 'crude looking chair' which is an example o1 that vermilion coloured furniture which has been of late, so much in demand. When there are two or three pieces in a roam, the effect is, I think too florid; but a single piece frequently helps to light up an apartment'. The furniture was displayed in a room with Egyptian red walls, the ceiling painted in colour, with a Saracenic design; some of the Mushrebiyeh screening had coloured glass behind it, and lamps hung from the ceiling. There were also folding stands for brass trays, brackets, what-nots, and fabrics. The writer pointed out how Liberty's were not content to act merely as importers, but:

…wisely perceive that a much larger trade can be secured if the public are only shown how the treasures and styles of the East can be transformed or utilized for the purpose of everyday life in this country. Thus they embrace in their present business home-made productions, in the Moresque style, as well as originals, and the clever way in which the two are wedded does considerable credit to the firm. I have never seen a display of such goods more calculated to secure business or to meet the wants of middle class as well as wealthy buyers.

The Moorish style was to feature prominently in Liberty catalogues and sketches of interior decoration well into the next century, for their Three Styles of Furniture and Decoration, published in 1909, features an `Eastern smoking room'. Indian elements where often mixed with the Arab style and a number of the interiors Deere designated meter as 'Oriental'. The Liberty Handbook of Sketches and Prices and Other Information for Artistic and Economical Domestic Decoration and Furniture, which has been tentatively dated 1889 although it is probably slightly later, shows folding Mushrebiyeh lattice screen,, Kharan chairs and writing table, an Anglo-Arab drawing room, a section of an Arab hall, and a morning room in Arab style. It also includes a press reports of 13 April 1889, under the heading `An Eastern Dream' which describes the Eastern Music Room and corridor at 27 Grosvenor Square, which was executed for Lady Aberdeen, the wife of the 7th Earl and 1st Marquess of Aberdeen. The room was described as:

… a triumph of taste and a monument to 'Liberty' enterprise and art. The ceiling panels are modeled from windows around the tombs of the Queens of Shah-Ahmed at Ahmedabad, the leaded glass from the designs of the tombs of Yufus Mooltan; the exquisite lattices hail from the Punjab, the fire dogs from Nepal, and the tiles from Mooltan. Pure and perfect Orientalism are supreme in this exquisite room.

Wide variety of styles

As in this Handbook of Sketches, together with other Liberty publications of the late 1880s and 1890s, eclecticism was rife, with Orientalism going hand-in-hand with revived English styles, which ranked from Tudor and Jacobean to 18th century country furniture, and catered for a wide range of artistic tastes. Liberty's emulated Morris and Company in producing a considerable variety of rush-seated chairs with the names `Chesham', `Wykeham', `Hampden', `Argyle' and `Arundel'. The `Lincoln' set, which had turned decoration recalling some of the simulated bamboo furniture of the Regency period, comprised a settee, a gentleman's chair, a lady's chair and six single chairs, all for the price of 10 guineas. The 'Lincoln' child's chair could be bought separately for 7/6 in the ebonised version, or for 10/6 in walnut. The `Norfolk' was a corner chair composed of ebonised bobbin turning; and a three-legged stool with a round seat called the `Patience' was advertised as being in `Art Colours'. These adaptations of English country furniture, introduced in the 1880s and 1890x, sold well into the 20th century. A simple Windsor-like chair, made in beech and stained green, which appears in the Liberty Yule-Tide Gifts catalogue of 1895-6 was certainly sold abroad, for one was purchased by the Nordenfjeldske Kunstindustrimuseum in Trondheim from Messrs Hirschwald of Berlin in 1902. Most of this type of furniture would have been made by outside firms, including William Birch of High Wycombe, but how much of it was exclusive to Liberty's is not clear. The Liberty Yule-Tide Gifts catalogue of 1897 illustrates a chair with five spokes com erring from the shaped top towards the upholstered seat, which is set on four splayed legs and is described as the `Antwerpen' chair, `A quaint chair, strong and light, made of walnut, seat upholstered and covered with tapestry. Price 15'-'. The identical chair, however, was illustrated in the Cabinet Maker and Art Furnisher (1 January 1889, p. 172) described as an `old fashioned type of kitchen chair refined up to the form of a "gossip" chair painted in artistic green, with a prettily upholstered seat', and N\ as sold by Messrs Hindley & Sons, who specialized in reproductions of 18th century English furniture.

Oak furniture by Liberty & Company

The most characteristic Liberty furniture was made in oak, solidly and well constructed in a somewhat ringed style, party- based on English rural forms. It was often embellished with beaten copper plaques, elaborate copper hinges, lock plates and handles, and with leaded glass cupboard doors, and sometimes an appropriate carved inscription at the top. A typical example of this style is a huge oak sideboard with copper fittings, including a repousse copper panel of two ships and a flying dragon, which is flanked by two small cupboards with leaded glass panels. At the top is the rather curious carved inscription `IT IS THE FAIR ACCEPTANCE THAT CREATES THE ENTERTAINMENT NOT THE CATES' (cates being purchased provisions, as opposed to homemade ones). Below are two cupboards with copper hinges, escutcheons and drop handles. The sideboard was designed by Leonard Wyburd and was illustrated in the Studio (vol. II, 1894, p. 35) and also later in the house (vol. I, 1897, p. 90). An earlier, simpler example was a rather `mediaeval' sideboard with heavy hinges and locks that was illustrated by Moyr Smith in 1887, citing it as an example `of a very simple and inexpensive style of dining room furniture which yet had spirit and individuality. To emphasize the 'Medieval' quality, the sideboard was set with German Stoneware and roemers, and reproductions of old Venetian glass.
By the 1890s a considerable range of this heavy oak furniture, including sideboards, bookcases, tables, chairs and bedroom suites, was available, much of it designed by Wyburd himself. Most were given 'Saxon' or Scottish names and the oak was `rendered the colour and finish of old work'. A characteristic example, one of several variants, was the `Lochleven Buffet', introduced about 1890, which had a small cupboard, glazed with leaded 'bulls-eyes', and two open compartments on a shelf raised from the board by turned columns, with a drawer and cupboards below . Such items sold abroad as well as at home, and a 'Lochleven Buffet' was purchased by the Osterrichisches Museum fur angewandte Kunst in Vienna. A very similar bookcase, with the same kind of asymmetric al arrangement of open shelves and a glazed cupboard above a fall-front desk had a carved inscription at the top 'READING MAKYTH A FULL MAN WRITING AN EXACT MAN'. In somewhat similar style but lighter, were shelves for bric-a-brac, a combined clock and wall bracket called `The Thoecen', and the 'Raleigh' smoker's cabinet with the dubious motto `THE MAN WHO SMOKES THINKS LIKE A SAGE AND ACTS LIKE A SAMARITAN'. These and other similar articles appear in the Yule-Tide Gifts catalogue of 1895-6.

The 'Culloden' suite had a sideboard made in finely grained oak, enriched with wrought copper fittings, with an upper cupboard glazed with leaded glass, and drawers and lockers below. The accompanying rush-seated dining chairs, with broad slatted backs, were similar to those produced by Morris & Company in the 1890s. A Yule-Tide Gifts catalogue: undated, but probably 1899, includes a two page central section illustrating a number of smaller pieces of furniture including the 'Wiclif' chair 'of quaint and simple design', and two heavy rush-seated armchairs, the `Ethelbert' and the `Athelstan'. The Athelstan design featured as a bedroom suite in the Liberty Furniture catalogue of 1902, described as a serviceable and artistic suite in solid oak. The upper panel of the door of the wardrobe had a hand-stained panel of a landscape, and heart-shaped cut-outs, the latter a feature of many Liberty pieces around the turn of the century. The washstand had 'antique' tiles at the top and back and the dressing table had rather primitive looking handles made of a piece of oak dowelling, attached to the drawers by small rectangles of wood at either end. The same handles appeared on another bedroom suite by Leonard Wyburd of about 1899 which showed an Egyptian influence, being embellished with `Lotus' insets in pewter, and a lotus design stenciled on the matting splashback of the washstand which was attached to the frame by thonging.

Wyburd also produced a number of smaller items such as the 'Sigebert' table; this had a hexagonal top and art nouveau tulip motifs cut out of the three legs, which were joined by three stretchers forming a triangle. Art nouveau fretwork also adorned the 'Suffolk' stand, which combined an occasional table with shelves for hooks or objects. It is difficult to ascertain to what extent these designs of the 1890s, were by Wyburd himself. An undated Handbook of Sketches, Part ll, Reception Room;, halls, Dining Rooms, Drawing Rooms, Boudoirs, Morning Rooms, Smoking Rooms and Billiard Rooms probably spans dates from 1893 to 1900, for the first sketch, 'A Summer Cottage' is signed by V.T. Jones and dated 1893, whereas other sketches labelled 'Recent developments' are manifestly later. The sketches include `The Witlaf" sideboard, in solid oak, with an embossed copper panel of boys in a Viking ship, which is signed H.F.T; other illustrations, including a Dutch breakfast room with a frieze of 'Old World Battleships' above the dado, are signed P.E.Q. in monogram, while a Saracenic smoking room design is signed G. Hentschel. These unidentified initials are possibly those of the studio draughtsmen, rather than the designers, for an illustration of a morning room called the 'Rossetti' (as it included reproductions of his paintings) shows the `Sigebert' table and the `Suffolke' stand, both of which have been attributed to Wyburd. Little is known of the personnel of the Furnishing and Decoration Studio, apart from E.P. Roberts who joined the design team in 1887, and succeeded to the management in 1903 on Wyburd's retirement. According to the Liberty Lamp (vol. VI, 1930, p. 126), Liberty's first took over a workshop of their own in 1887. It was supervised by a Scot, James Thallon, who had as his foreman George Wolfe, who had previously worked with Thallon at the cabinet-works of Messrs Howard of Berners Street. When James Thallon retired in 1898, his son took over, to be succeeded in turn by George Wolfe who remained with the firm until his retirement in 1931. Not all the furniture was produced in the Liberty -workshops, some probably being made by independent craftsmen. Certainly, both chairs and cabinet furniture were made for Liberty's by William Birch of High Wycombe, some of it designed by F.G. Punnett. Punnett was possibly responsible for some of the more elegant pieces of Liberty furniture which were first produced in the late 1890s. This furniture was made in mahogany or walnut, or occasionally in satinwood, rather than in oak. It often shows the influence of C.F.A. Voysey and is similar to that produced by J.S. Henry of Old Street, a firm which also employed E.G. Punnett as a designer.

A typical Liberty piece is a music cabinet made in 1897 or 1898, which is now in the Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle. Made of mahogany, it has four capped posts rising above the main carcase, and art nouveau plant decoration in coloured woods on the doors and upper rails. The same style can he seen in an elegant mahogany display cabinet of approximately the same (late, which has dazed doors, marquetry in coloured woods and mother-of-pearl, and elaborate brass lock plates and handles set with small blue ceramic bosses. A number of occasional tables have similar art nouveau floral marquetry. An equally elegant suite in walnut, inlaid with delicate motifs in mother-of-pearl, was designed by the Glasgow architect George Walton (1867-1933). George Walton, the son of an unsuccessful painter, after attending evening classes at Glasgow School of Art, abandoned his career as a bank clerk and set himself up as `George Walton & Co., Ecclesiastical and House Decorators' in 1888. He moved to London in 1897, and in 1898 secured an important commission to furnish Kodak showrooms in London, Glasgow, Brussels, Milan and Vienna, and continued to pursue a successful career as an architect and designer of stained glass, furniture, textiles and wallpapers. As well as designing furniture, he also designed some of the later 'Clutha' glass sold by Liberty. A satinwood drawing room suite, with a glazed cabinet, two armchairs, single chairs and a table, virtually identical to one in a Liberty Inexpensive Furniture catalogue of about 1905, clearly shows the influence of George Walton although it may not have been designed by him. There is a strong `Glasgow style' influence in much of the Liberty furniture of this date, as shown in the room settings in their Dress and Decoration publication of 1905. Wylie and Lochhead of Glasgow retailed some Liberty furniture and there is a distinct similarity between some of their pieces, particularly the hall furniture.

As well as their original styles, Liberty's was responsible for a number of revivals. Prominent among them was the so-called `Jacobean' style, which Liberty described as `perhaps the most ENGLISH in its characteristics …. 'and in many respects the most suitable to our climate, tastes and habits'. This style was considered particularly suitable for halls, staircases, billiard rooms and dining rooms, with tables with bulbous carved legs, inglenooks and oak panelling, with plaster friezes and ceilings, some executed by G.F. Bankart. What was called 'Modified Tudor' or 'Domestic Gothic' also found favour, and often incorporated linenfold oak panelling which was to become a Liberty speciality. `Elizabethan' and `English Renaissance' are also found, and while English revivals predominated, an occasional foreign influence was permitted. The 'Holbein' sideboard designed by Wyburd, which has similar decoration to that on the shelves and brackets in the 1895-6 Yu1eTide Gifts catalogue, is described as `Flemish', while the 'Culloden' (lining room is described as `German Gothic'. Unlike many of their competitors, Liberty did not favour French styles, and avoided the fashionable 'Neo-Rococo' and `Louis Quinze' and `Louis Seize' styles. These varied styles of Liberty interior decoration, perhaps because of their very Englishness, had a marked success abroad, and commissions were received throughout Europe and from as far afield as India and South Africa.

Apart from permanent schemes of interior decoration, Liberty's were also involved in more ephemeral and exotic schemes for exhibitions and other special occasions. As well as providing the materials for the costumes for F.C. Burnand's play The Colonel, adapted from a French play satirising the aesthetes, and the Gilbert and Sullivan opera Patience, when the latter transferred from the Opera Comique to the newly built Savoy Theatre (designed by the architect Charles John Phipps (1835-1897)) which had opened on 14 October 1881, Liberty's designed a special reception room for the Prince of Wales, festooning the room with a selection of Liberty silks. Similar decorations were provided on occasions for the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, the Haymarket Theatre, the Lyceum and Drury Lane. For The Mikado (1885), with its Japanese setting one of the most popular of the Gilbert and Sullivan operas, Liberty sent representatives to Japan to study the native costumes at first hand, and bring back correct materials for both the costumes and stage sets.

Special schemes by Liberty & Company

In 1875 Arthur Liberty had been involved in setting up a Japanese house in the park at Alexandra Palace in North London, but in 1885 he was to undertake an even more ambitious project, the setting up of an Indian Village at the Albert Exhibition Palace in Battersea Park. This was a cast iron and glass building similar to the Crystal Palace and was first erected for an exhibition in Dublin, and then moved to Battersea in southwest London. This enterprise involved bringing over a whole contingent of native Indian craftsmen, entertainers, musicians and cooks. A Liberty employee, Mr A. Bonner, had the rather daunting task of collecting the Indians and bringing them to England, complicated by the fact that the Indians belonged to different castes and religions, including Hindu, Mohammedan, Zoroastrian and Roman Catholic. The craftsmen included spinners, weavers, fivers, dressmakers and embroiderers, brass workers and jewellers, carvers and inlaid woodworkers and modelmakers, and among the entertainers were a snake charmer, an acrobat, jugglers and dancing girls. The idea was to show the skill of the Indian craftsmen and no doubt also to promote Liberty's own Indian imports.

Liberty's also provided decorations for Queen Victoria's Golden jubilee in 1887 and for the celebrations of the Silver Wedding of the Prince and Princess of Wales in the following year. Perhaps the most exotic of these ventures was the decoration of the Royal Pavilion at Brighton on the occasion of a ball given for a wealthy Indian Prince, the Maharaja Gaekwar of Baroda, who was spending the winter of 1887-8 in the town. Guy Bentley, writing many years later in the Liberty Lamp in 1927, recalled that: 'several truck loads of carpets, rugs, embroideries, palampores and other Oriental goods valued at over .£2,000 were transported to Brighton, and in about for y-eight hours the Pavilion was transformed into a scene from the Arabian Nights.'

Guy Bentley, with two other Liberty employees, attended the ball, and he described how `the Rani (the Prince's wife) was concealed in a small room fitted up for her where, behind Musharabeyeh screens, she could watch the festivities'.

The Royal Pavilion transformed

The hall took place on 8 December and a full description of the decorations was given in the Brighton Guardian for 14 December 1887. Described as being `decorated internally with the most lavish Oriental splendour', the Gaekwar's colours of yellow and (lark blue were used throughout the scheme. In one apartment the colours were emphasized in the festooned hangings of Indian muslin and rich embroideries, and in the chief supper chambers they were again found most appropriately blended in the spread tail of a peacock, which formed a conspicuous table ornament. The doorway leading to the main corridor was decorated with a sumptuous piece of antique Chinese embroidery worked with figures in crimson and gold silks, with on either side Japanese panels embroidered with storks. The seating in the corridor was covered with Turkish and Persian rugs and the natural divisions of the apartment were adorned overhead with festooned curtains of vellow Indian muslin. The walls were hung with Japanese embroideries, glittering with gold thread, and open fans of cerulean blue silk and yellow flowers added to the colour scheme. Large palm trees were set at intervals; the floor was covered with brightly coloured rugs, and mirrors reflected the splendour of the scheme. The double staircase at the north end of the corridor was hung with printed Indian palampores. The Saloon was furnished as a throne room and the dais, approached by two or three steps, was covered with a fine Dhurrie carpet, overarched with a canopy of blue and gold, with draperies at the back. The chair of honour, or throne, was in crimson velvet and gold with a tapestry behind embellished with the Gaekwar's crest of a crown and a scimitar.

The two large apartments, the Music Room and Banqueting Room, were set aside for (lancing, and the settees covered with Persian rugs. Platforms decorated with festoons of muslin were provided for the bands, and were surmounted by a frieze composed of Indian hand screens of kus-kus grass. The oblong chamber behind the Banqueting Room was transformed into a retiring room for the Gaekwar by the liberal use of old gold stain, which covered the walls and ceiling, with a dado improvised in rich tapestry.

In addition to fairy lights, illumination was provided by electricity. The Corporation Minute Book recorded that the electric light was 'steady and brilliant' from 8 p.m. to 5 a.m. The Minutes also recorded that the Gaekwar permitted the decorations and electric light to remain in place, free of charge, for a concert held in aid of local charities on 12 December.

Liberty's were by way of being pioneers in the use of electric lighting, using it for their own Eastern Bazaar by 1887 and advertising that they could carry out schemes of electric lighting for both domestic and commercial use. The only hitch in the proceedings occurred when one of Liberty's workmen accidentally damaged a picture, but Liberty's expressed their deep regret and offered to pay for the repair, an offer that was gratefully accepted.

The Brighton Guardian regarded the ball as `the most splendid entertainment of its kind ever held in the Pavilion since it became the property of the Corporation'. This had been in 1850, when it was sold to the town by Queen Victoria for £53,000. To those who know the Pavilion today, the transformation must be hard to envisage, but when the building was sold to the Corporation, most of the furniture and moveable decorative features were kept in Royal possession and dispersed, to he returned only in recent years.

The 1902 Furniture catalogue shows a wide range of Liberty furniture, including the 'Rowena' drawing room suite in mahogany. The cabinet from this suite, an example of which is now in the Cecil Higgins Museum, Bedford, was described as `Mahogany cabinet, in rich colour with unvarnished surface. Relieved by three inlaid panels of various coloured woods and designed in the centre with a glazed cupboard for bric-a-brac. Suitable, also, for a boudoir'. The `Ethelwynn' drawing room suite in walnut was somewhat simpler and showed something of an Austrian influence. The room setting for this suite showed a frieze probably designed by George Walton. The 'Helga' suite, described as `a dainty bedroom suite in white enamelled wood', had a hanging wardrobe with a curtained space above for bonnets. The 'Athelstan' oak bedroom suite was shown in a room with a peacock frieze, and included the 'Stronza' armchair, an adaptation of a traditional Orkney chair with a high semi-circular back of woven rush. The 'Culloden' dining room suite was also included, another oak dining room suite called the 'Dunkeld' in which the wood was stained grey-brown and dull wax polished. This finish has recently been revived by Liberty in some reproductions of their turn of the century furniture.

The 1907 catalogue of furniture contains less of interest. Although the 'Culloden' and 'Athelstan' suites are still featured, the furniture on the whole is simpler and less original, with more or less straightforward reproductions or adaptations of `Queen Anne' and 'Hepplewhite' furniture. Whether this was occasioned by the retirement of Leonard Wyburd in 1903, or merely by following the same path as Morris and Company and other high-class firms at that time, a distinct Liberty style is no longer dominant. There are a few touches of originality such as two charming swing cradles with embroidered linen curtains, illustrated in the Studio Year Book of Decorative Art (1906,
p. 84), and a nursery dresser with inset pictorial panels of Dutch children. As a writer in the 1906 Studio Year Book wrote: ….perhaps as a reaction to the extravagancies of art nouveau . . the demand of the day… is practically confined to copies or adaptations of the past.... It is not a little mortifying for all who have been looking hopefully for a fresh and vital style in English furniture design, to be obliged to acknowledge that enterprise in that direction has sustained a check which has temporarily impeded its progress in that country.

This trend towards traditional design was to continue at Liberty's in the 1920s and 1930s, with most of the innovations in the field of textiles and dress. It was not until the 1950s that they were to resume their pioneering role in promoting the best of contemporary design, while successfully maintaining a traditional 'Liberty' image, a trend that has continued until the present day.

A HISTORY OF LAMB OF MANCHESTER

A BRIEF HISTORY OF CHRISTOPHER PRATT, BRADFORD

Note on Labelling Techniques
Trade labels found on furniture made by certain Yorkshire firms during the nineteenth century are often most instructive. Roodhouse of Leeds and Richardson of Hull, for instance, included, in addition to the printed information, details of the order number, date and workman's name. Transcripts of the labels employed by Joseph Nutter, Pratt & Prince and Christopher Pratt & Sons, are provided elsewhere, they enable each item to be placed within a definite period, but do not record any supplementary data. After about 1880 the firm frequently introduced a second label-slightly larger than a postage stamp inscribed with a number, but as yet, no method of using these figures as a key to precise dating has been devised. After about 1900 Pratts sometimes fixed a small metal plaque on their furniture and paper labels incorporating the monogram 'C.P.S.' start to appear. When they became a limited company in 1913 the abbreviation 'Ltd.' follows their name. One instance of the impressed initials 'C.P' have been noted on the seat rail of a chair known to have been made by the firm c.1905. During the 1920s a label inscribed simply 'Pratts of Bradford' may be encountered.

BAMBOO FURNITURE MANUFACTURERS

ABBOT, E. C. & CO., 10 Clerkenwell Green, London, E.C. (1898)

AIDZU BAMBOO CO., 204 New North Road, & 93 Rivington St, Curtain Road, E.C. (1884)

ANTIQUE & FOREIGN FURNITURE CO. (CAWLEY & CO.), 4 New Inn Yard, Gt Eastern St, E.C. (1882)

ARDWICK WICKER CHAIR MANUFACTURING CO., Tiverton Grove, Tiverton St, Manchester (1922)

ASTON BAMBOO FURNITURE CO., 50 Bracebridge St, Aston Road & 6 Brook St, Birmingham (1899)

ATKINS, THOMAS EDWARD, 32A Euston. Square, N.W. (1899)

AUSTRIAN BENTWOOD FURNITURE CO., 85 Gt Eastern St & 3 Newgate St, E.C. (1892)

B. & WICKER FURNITURE CO. LTD, 34 Gt Eastern St, E.C. (1909)

BAMBOO ART WORK CO., 44 Sun St, Finsbury, E.C. (1893)

BAMBOO COMPANY, Star Works, Gt Sutton St, E.C. (1894)

BAMBOO FURNITURE MANUFACTURING COMPANY, I46A & 152 Offord Road, Barnsbury, N. & 6 I Poole St, New North Road, N. & 103 George St, Croydon (1895)

BAMBOO & UPHOLSTERY CO., LTD, 34 Gt. Eastern St, E.C. (1908)

BAKER, SAMUEL, 7 Mott St, Birmingham (1903)

BANKS, GEORGE, 100A Shakespeare Rd, Stoke Newington, N. (1907)

BASS, MATTHEW, Rheidol Mews, Rheidol Terrace, Islington, N. (1906)

BASTENDORFF, JOSEPH & CO., 9 & 11 Essex Rd, 5 Charles Place, Euston Square, N.W. & 77 Chenies Mews, W.C. (1891)

BASTENDORFF, PETER & CO., 4 Euston Square, N.W., 23 Harrington St, Hampstead, N.W. & I S Edward St, Hampstead Rd, N.W. (1885-1893)

BASTENDORFF, SIDNEY, Rheidol Mews, Rheidol Terrace, Islington, N. (1903)

BATH, F. & CO., 49 Skinner Lane, Birmingham (1899)

BEETLES. C. C., 93 Herbert St, New North Rd, Hoxton, N. & 45 Essex Rd, N. (1894-1900)

BEAUMONT, G. & CO., 158 High Holborn (1881)

BELSCHNER, F. & CO., 41 Moor Lane, E.C. (1901)

BETHELL, T. H., St Mary Axe, & Bevis Marks (1894)

BILL, HUBERT, 14 & 15 Little Camden St, Camden Town, N.W., 24 Margaret St, W., 101A Dean St, Soho, W., 330A Holloway Road, N., I78A Oxford St, W., 43 Warren St, W., 42Whetstone Park, Holborn, W.C., 12 Duck Lane, Soho, W., 131 Wardour St, W. (1869-1905)

BONELL, THOMAS JOHN, So Bracebridge St, Birmingham (1899)

BRAUN & FRANCIS, 84 & 86 Tabernacle St, E.C., 372 Hackney Road, N.E., & 211 Hackney Road, N.E. (1898)

BREST, MRS GERTRUDE, 79 Tudor St, Canton, Cardiff (1906)

BROWN, FRANK, 278 & 292 Tabard St, Boro', S.E. (1898)

BURVILLE & CO., 239 Hackney Road, E.2. (1922)

CANE & CO., 1 Iremonger Row, E.C. (1903)

CARLO BENJAMIN & CO., 7 Cropley St, Hoxton (1898)

CASPAR & CO., 76 High Holborn, W.C. & 26 Red Lion Square, W.C. (1892)

CAWLEY & CO., 7 & 8 Charlotte St, Great Eastern St, E.C. (1882)

CLAYTON BROS, 22A Chappell Lane, Brownlow Hill, W. Liverpool (1894)

CLEMENTS, MRS ELIZABETH, 52 Russell St, W. Liverpool (1913)

CLOZENBERG, Messrs & SON, 119 Curtain Rd, E.C. (1906)

COHEN, B. & SONS, LTD, Curtain Rd, E.C. (1906)

COHEN, LEWIS, 69 Hare St, Bethnal Green, E. (1899)

COLLIER, HERMAN & CO., 66 Worship St, E.C. & 7 Vandy St, E.C. (1898)

COLLIER, J. & CO., 17 Devonshire Square, E.C. (1889)

CORBLUTH, JOHN & CO., 33 Curtain Rd, E.C. & 17 Holywell Row, Finsbury, E.C. (1895)

COULSON, JAMES, 34 York St, Westminster, S.W. (1902)

CRAWLEY MORRIS & CO., 64 City Road (1876)

CULLUM, JOHN THOMAS, 217 Hackney Road, N.E. (1896)

ELLMORE, W. T. & SONS LTD, Leicester & 16 City Road, London (1886-1926)

EMPIRE BUILDERS LTD, 329 Hoxton St, N. I. (1919)

ENGLANDER, ADOLPH, 76 Luke St, Curtain Rd, E.C. & 34 Gt Eastern St, E.C. (1898)

ENGLANDER & SEARLE, 24, 31 & 33 Mare St, & 34 Gt Eastern St, Hackney (1904)

EVANS, WALTER GAMON & SON, 23 Netley St, N.W., & Eden St, Hampstead Rd, N.W. (1888)

FALET, F., 10 Grays Inn Rd (1889)

FALET, WALKER & CO., Worship St, E.C. (1905)

FORTIER, URSIN, 65 Charlotte St, Fitzroy Square, W. (1885)

FRAMPTON, ELI, Upper Brook St Works, 68 Temple St, Manchester (1907)

FRANK, MICHAEL & CO., 68 Old St, Luke's, E.C. (1892)

FREDERICK, JAMES (LONDON BAMBOO & WICKER FURNI TURE MANUFACTURING CO.), 59 & 61 Wigmore St, W. (1884)

FRYER & CO., 19 Archer St, Camden Town, N.W. (1895)

FRYER, FRANK & CO., Little King St, N.W. (1893)

GARRET, CHARLES GEORGE, Bath Place, Euston Rd, N.W. (1898)

GEMS, ERNEST, 78 Wigmore St, W. (1885)

GEMS, JULIUS & CO., 94 East, Manchester Square, W. (1885)

GOODWIN, THOMAS JOHN & SON,185 Old Kent Rd, S.E. (1906)

GOTLIEB & HACKER, 22, New St, Bishopsgate, E.C. (1900)

GOTLIEB, NATHANIEL & CO., 66 Valance Rd, E. (1897)

GRAY, GEORGE ALFRED, 2 8 Cowper St, E.C. (1898)

GREIFENBERG, LOUIS, 47 Rounton Rd, Bow, E. (1898)

HARDSTAFF, T., Carrington St, Nottingham (1886)

HARLEY, FREDERICK & CO., 82 Mary St & 92 Steward St, Birmingham (1899)

HARO