Antique English Furniture 17

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 !767, but his partner seems not to have been in favour 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 furniture in the Chippendale manner, but only a few pieces are known that were made by the firm.

George Seddon (1727 to 1801). The biggest cabinet-making busi­ness in London in the eighteenth century was conducted by George Seddon in Aldersgate Street, where he is said to have employed four hundred workmen. Some of the 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 were prominent cabinet-makers during most of the eighteenth century. They had a showroom in Oxford Street, London (later the site of Waring 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.

English Furniture

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