Know Everything About About the Antique Makers and Designers
Do you any
antique designers and the cabinet-makers who had made some of the
antique pieces that we could see even today. Most of the information
about these designers or makers were most of the time very difficult
to find. We will know some of these famous
designers and makers and something about their works.
The majorities
of English cabinet-makers are known to us only by their names; only
rarely is it possible to say who made a particular piece. When this
can be done it is for one of two reasons: either because the original
bill has been preserved, or because the name of the maker was inlaid,
stamped or printed on a paper label inside the article. The following
are some brief notes on a very few of the more important designers
and makers who worked in the eighteenth century.
Samuel Bennett
A London maker
who was working at the beginning of the eighteenth century. A cabinet
is known with his printed label in one of the drawers.
Also, there are three cabinets in existence which have his name
inlaid on the inside of a door.
William Kent
(1686 to 1748)
An architect,
and about the first in England who not only designed a mansion but
also some of its contents. His furniture
is heavy in appearance and bears much carving, and as his tables
and chairs
were usually gilt the effect is very rich.
Thomas
Chippendale (1718 to 1779)
The best known
of all English cabinet-makers and designers. Born at Otley,
Yorkshire, he came to London and eventually opened a workshop in St
Martin's Lane. His book of designs, The Gentleman and Cabinet Maker's
Director, was published first in 1752, enlarged in 1762, and is the
most famous of its kind in any country. Chippendale's own firm made
pieces for many of the biggest mansions in England, and some of it
remains in the rooms
in which it was first placed, and for which it was designed. On his
death, his son, also named Thomas, carried on his business.
John Cobb
(died in 1778) and William Vile (died in 1767)
Cobb is
recorded as being notorious for a very haughty manner, and stories
are told of the difficulties into which this led him. Some of his
furniture has been identified, but his partnership with William Vile
is equally responsible for his importance. Together they were
cabinet-makers to George III, and pieces they are known to have made
are among the finest of the eighteenth century. Some of their work
for the Royal Family is still at Buckingham Palace. William Vile died
in 1767, but his partner seems not to have been in favor for no
further goods were supplied to the King and Queen after that year.
William Ince
and John Mayhew (working between 1760 and 1810)
These
cabinet-makers, who had a workshop in Soho, London, published a
pattern book in 1763. The book contains about three hundred designs
for different types of heritage
furniture in the Chippendale manner, but only a few pieces are
known that were made by the firm.
George Seddon
(1727 to 1801)
George Seddon
in Aldersgate Street conducted the biggest cabinet-making business in
London in the eighteenth century, where he is said to have employed
four hundred workmen. Some of the heirloom
furniture made there has been identified from the bills that
were preserved with it.
George
Hepplewhite (died in 1786)
George
Hepplewhite's name is on a book of designs issued by his widow in
1788, but little else is known about him.
Gillow's
The firm of
Gillow had workshops at Lancaster, Lancashire, and was prominent
cabinet-makers during most of the eighteenth century. They had a
showroom in Oxford Street, London (later the site of Warring and
Gillow's showroom), and sent their finished goods south by sea. Late
in the century they sometimes used a metal stamp with their name to
mark their pieces, and are the only English firm known to have used
this French method of marking before about 1820.
Thomas
Sheraton (1751 to 1806)
Little is
known of the history of Thomas Sheraton. He was born at
Stockton-on-Tees, Durham, and came to London. His famous book of
designs, The Cabinet Maker and Upholsterer's Drawing Book, was
published in four parts between 1791 and 1794, and his Cabinet
Dictionary in 1803.
Although he
was trained to the trade as a youth, he is not known to have
practiced as a cabinet-maker.
William Moore
(working between 1780 and 1815)
After some
years at work in London, Moore opened a business in Dublin, where he
specialized in inlaid furniture in the Sheraton style, Much other furniture
was made in Ireland during the eighteenth century, but it is often
indistinguishable from its English counterpart. Mahogany
tables on especially slim cabriole legs are considered usually
to be of Irish make, but much research on this subject remains to be done.
Here we have
seen how these designers and makers names have been discovered, their
introductions and what kinds of designs they made. There were many
sources searched for this information. One of the most striking
things about all these designers and makers is that they used their
own distinctive styles. |