18th century AD

Magazine Antiques, June, 1994 by Geoffrey Beard

By the early eighteenth century the upholsterer had become an accomplished interior decorator, responsible for the complete furnishing of a house. He was at a higher social level than the cabinetmaker and had become what the knowledgeable commentator Robert Campbell called in 1747 "a Connoisseur in every article that belongs to a House," who employed "journeymen in his own proper calling, cabinetmakers, glass grinders, looking-glass framers, carvers for chairs, Testers and Posts for Beds, the woolen Draper, the mercer, the Linen Draper and several species of smiths and a vast army of tradesmen and other mechanic branches."(1) According to Campbell, it cost from one hundred to one thousand pounds to set up as a master upholsterer, and the working day was long--from six in the morning to eight in the evening. In addition, a master upholsterer required a financial inducement of twenty to fifty pounds to train apprentices--more than was asked by the chair carver, cabinetmaker, turner, or gilder.(2)

Most patrons found upholsterers, like other craftsmen, through recommendations from architects and friends. Holders of a royal warrant were particularly in demand for any work they could do beyond their royal commissions. hroughout the eighteenth century the use of pattern books was widespread, and visits by the patron to the upholsterer's workshop were usual. At a workshop the patron could often see the pattern or prototype of the furniture he intended to order.(3) With samples, design books, and suites of engravings, the patron had a wide choice. In April 1768, for example, John Spencer of Cannon Hall in South Yorkshire and his architect John Carr (1723-1807) visited the London cabinetmaking and upholstery workshop of Thomas Chippendale and several others, for Carr was evidently anxious to see that the furniture ordered would suit the interiors he had designed:

Mr. Car went with me to Mr. Tyler the Statuary, paid him his Bill from thence he went with me [to] Cobbs, Chippendales, & several others of the most eminent Cabinet Makers to consider of proper Furniture for my drawing Room.(4)

After the initial contact, the craftsman would visit the patron's house to inspect the setting and to take measurements. On these occasions a sketch could make a great impression. As the draftsman Thomas Malton (1726-1801) wrote in 1775:

There is nothing influences a Gentleman more in favour of his workman, when he is pleased to want something whimsical and out of the way, than to take his Pencil and sketch out the Idea the Gentleman had conceived, and was big with, yet could not bring forth without assistance. He who can do that, and at the same time display a little modern taste, in Ornament, being known, is certain of success, or of employ, at least.(5)

While fulfilling a commission, the upholsterer sometimes lived in the house he was decorating, but he more often lodged locally. Some of the specialized work was left to itinerant professional embroiderers and related craftsmen, such as fringe makers.

The London upholsterer Thomas Phill undertook work for Queen Anne, George I, and (for a year or so) George II through the agency of the Great Wardrobe, which furnished the royal palaces. He supplied large numbers of chairs often covered with Turkey work.(6) In 1718 alone he made ninety such chairs for the House of Lords and forty-eight for the House of Commons at the Palace of Westminster in London.(7) This indicates a manufactory of a considerable size at his premises at the sign of "The Three Golden Chairs" on the Strand. His only known private commission was to provide six chairs and possibly a settee and firescreen to Edward Dryden at Canons Ashby House, Northamptonshire, in 1715 (see Pls. II, III). His bill specified "makeing [y.sup.e] needle worke covers & fixeing [y.sup.m] on [y.sup.e] Chaires & for sewing silk used about [y.sup.e] same" for [pound]1 13s.(8) Despite the wording of the bill, this small sum suggests that Phill merely put the covers on the furniture. The covers themselves could have been worked by Dryden's wife, Elizabeth Allen, and the ladies of her household.

[CHART OMITTED]

Indeed, needlework by the ladies of the household has a long history. A visitor to Badminton House in Gloucestershire in the 1680's remarked upon the "princely way of living" of its owners, Henry Somerset (1629-1700) and his wife Mary Capel (1630-1715), the first duke and duchess of Beaufort:

The ordinary pastime of the ladies was in a gallery where she [the duchess] had divers gentlewomen commonly at work upon embroidery and fringe-making; for all the beds of state were made and finished in the house.(9)

It also has been stated that "English Queens, in particular, have been noted for their skill in embroidery from Aelgiltha, wife of King Canute, down to the late Queen Mary."(10) However, excesses were not unknown. One exasperated husband complained in 1758 that "we have twice as many firescreens as chimneys," thanks to his wife, who kept their daughters incessantly at work with the needle.(11)