English William IV Period Burr Elm Parcel-Gilt Centre Table Attributed to Seddon

A William IV Period Mahogany Centre Table Attributed to Gillows Constructed from a flamed Honduras Mahogany, book-matched with great effect on the top; the table supported on an inc...

A magnificent library table Attributed to Jackson & Graham Of free standing rectangular form, constructed in coromandel, with inlays in thuya, ebony, boxwood, and honeysuckle; the fluted legs rising from square brass castor-shod feet; the frieze housing two lockable drawers fitted with rare ‘tamper proof’ Chubb locks and having quadrant moulded cedar lined interiors; the platform having a central panel of beautifully chosen matched coromandel veneers, with an outer guard border of a running pattern of stylised anthemions; the ebony edges having a thumb nail moulding, circa 1865 The firm of Jackson & Graham established in 1836 by Thomas Jackson and Peter Graham at 37 Oxford Street London, and for the next fifty years produced predominately high quality furniture and represented Britain at many of the international exhibitions. Their clients included Queen Victoria, Napoleon III, the Grand Khedive of Cairo and the royal palace in Siam. They were particularly noted for their fine marquetry work, the use of Wedgwood plaques, rare woods, and fine casting of bronze mounts. They engaged the leading designers of the period, inter alia, Owen Jones, Bruce Talbert, Alfred Lorimer and Eugene Prignot. In the mid-1850s the workforce was recorded as 250, and by 1875, the company was employing 600 workers. They were feted exhibitors at many of the Great Exhibitions of the 19th century, and frequent prize winners. At the Paris International Exhibition of 1878, the furniture jury noted of them ‘ the workmanship is so perfect that even with the aid of a magnifying glass scarcely the slightest imperfection is to be found’. In 1885 the company was absorbed by Collinson and Lock, who continued their standard of excellence. Charles Chubb was apprenticed as a blacksmith before starting business as a ships’ ironmonger in Winchester. Jeremiah soon joined the business, and by 1818 the brothers had branched out into lockmaking, founding the famous Chubb Company. The business really got started when Jeremiah Chubb patented his new ‘detector lock’ in 1818. The lock was constructed so that if someone tried to pick it or open it with the wrong key it became inoperable. To make the lock work again the owner had to use a special key supplied with the lock. The aim of the detector lock was to prevent burglaries, and to warn the owner that someone had tried to break into their property. The lock soon became popular, and sales of the Chubbs’ products increased even more when they won a government competition to design a lock that could only be opened using its own key. After the invention of the detector lock, the Chubbs decided to move to Wolverhampton, which already had an established lock making industry. By 1838 they were making 28,000 locks a year at their Wolverhampton factory. Another product was added to the Chubb range in 1835 when a patent was taken out for a burglar resistant safe, and in 1837 the Chubb safe...

A Very Fine George IV Parcel-Gilt Amboyna Centre Table Attributed to Thomas & George Seddon. English, Circa 1830. The table is of finely figured Amboyna with a circular tilt-top above a triform column with parcel-gilt scrolled supports. It is raised on a conforming plinth base with foliate carved feet and concealed castors. George Seddon was the eighth child of John Seddon of Blakelea, Lancashire. His father apprenticed him to George Clemaphon of Cripplegate to learn cabinet making. He became a master cabinet maker. (He was Master of the Joiner’s Company in 1795). In the early 1750s he was sufficiently successful to acquire London House, Aldersgate Street. It consisted of extensive workshops, where furniture was made, and showrooms to display the finished products. London House had formerly been a palace of the Bishops of London. The panelled state-rooms were ideal for the display of fashionable furniture; and the chapel and library made convenient workshops. When Seddon married, he converted the garden house and infirmary into the family home. Seddon was the biggest furniture maker of his time. His furniture store covered a two acre site in Aldersgate Street. His workshop there was described by London visitor Sophie v. La Roche in 1786: "We drove first to Mr. Seddon's, a cabinet-maker,...He employs four hundred apprentices on any work connected with the making of household furniture—joiners, carvers, gilders...

A010 Outstanding English antique, William IV, circular centre table in rosewood, having a tilt top with exquisite book matched veneer. Raised on turned tapered column with tulip carv...