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Makers and Designers - Part 1

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 business was carried on by his son, also named Thomas.

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 !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.

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