Neoclassicism - England - Part 4

Hepplewhite is supposed to have contributed designs to another book of engravings published in 1788. This was Thomas Shearer's The Cabinet-Makers London Book of Prices, and Designs for Cabinet Work. The book 'calculated for the Convenience of Cabinet-makers in General: Whereby the Price of executing any Piece of Work may be easily found', went into further editions  in 1793, 1805 and 1823, and is especially interesting in showing how costs were calculating, but it never achieved the acclaim of Chippendale's, Hepplewhite's or, later, Sheraton's books. Of Sheraton himself, practically nothing is known, and no records of the handmade furniture he made, if any, have survived.

One of the most important cabinetmaking businesses of the later 18th century was not based in London at all. This was Gillows of Lancaster, established late in the 17th or early in the 18th century (the firms records go back to 1731), and exceedingly prosperous by the 1760s. A showroom or warehouse was opened in London about 1760 but the main factory remained in Lancaster. Gillows were patronised by the gentry and aristocracy of the north, such as the Duke of Atholl and the Earls of Strafford and Derby, and they had a flourishing export business to the Baltic countries and the West Indies.

The greater part of their output, especially during the 1780s and 1790s, consisted of well made at reasonable prices, and in following the fashionable styles of the period they exercised an elegant restraint. As an early 19th century writer put it, 'their work is good and solid, though not of the first class in inventiveness and style'. Gillows are perhaps best remembered now for their commodious clothes presses of the type known as a 'gentleman's wardrobe'. These had sliding trays in a cupboard section in the top half with a chest of drawers below.

More recently it has been suggested that Gillows originated many of the designs in Hepplewhite's Guide. A number of pieces illustrated in the Gillow records (now in Westminster Palace Library), among them the shield-back chair, have parallels among Hepplewhite's drawings, and according to one tradition Hepplewhite has been apprenticed to Gillow.

Gillows were among the few firms to adopt the French habit of stamping their fitted and non fitted furniture, and a good deal survives, marked - on the inside edge of a drawer or some other unobtrusive place - GILLOWS or GILLOWS LANCASTER. Stamped or labelled furniture is rare in England, but examples marked with the names of cabinetmakers from all over Britain do turn up from time to time, and they provide valuable pieces to add to the jig-saw of furniture history. Many of them also prove that a high proportion of good cabinetmakers were based outside the metropolis.

The best trade labels provide detailed information about the kind of work a firm was able to undertake. It was usual for cabinetmaking to be combined with upholstery, and many firms undertook funerals. Others specialised  - in chairmaking, looking-glass manufacturing, carving and gilding or japanning. There were makers of particular items - among them Edward Beesly, maker of 'Cane and Stick Heads', John Folgham, 'Shagreen case-Maker', Banks the cellaret maker', or Elizabeth Barton Stent, 'turner'. Woman do appear from time to time in the annuals of cabinetmaking , even in the unemancipated 18th century. Some, especially in the upholstery and similar branches of the trade, were in business on their own account but most, like Alice Hepplewhite and Elizabeth Stent, were successors to the firms of husbands or fathers.