The Reform Club in London: a nineteenth-century collaboration - architectural design of private, social club

Magazine Antiques, June, 1994 by Mary Anne Hunting

(16)"Honorable Edward Ellice" AAD 13/1 1983 (1824-1826), "Reform Club" AAD 13/4 1983 (1835-1839), and "Sir Charles Barry" AAD 13/6 1983 (1840-1842), Taprell, Holland and Son Daybooks, Archive of Art and Design, Victoria and Albert Museum, London. All the "Reform Club" entries in the Taprell and Holland daybooks have been transcribed in Mary Anne Hunting Massie, "The Furnishing of the Reform Club Interiors: A Collaboration Between Charles Barry, Taprell and Holland, and the Reform Club Members" (Master's thesis, Cooper-Hewitt Museum and Parsons School of Design, New York City, 1990).

(17)For lists of the services and supplies that Taprell and Holland provided to the Reform Club, see Massie, "The Furnishing of the Reform Club Interiors," pp. 175-176, appendixes V and VI. Taprell and Holland's volume of business with the Reform Club between 1840 and 1842 was almost double its business with any other club it had furnished. Nonetheless, it only amounted to 5.5 percent of the firm's over-all business. A comparison of the tenders and daybooks reveals that Taprell and Holland closely adhered to its original bid to the Reform Club. Although the initial installation lasted about a year, the firm continued to work for the club until 1848, bringing its total billings to [pound]7,373.

(18)Minutes Book, April 15, 1843.

(19)Joe Mordaunt Crook, "The Reform Club" (London, 1973), p. 4.

(20)"The Library of the Reform Clubhouse," London Pictorial Times, August 29, 1846.

(21)"Pokings About London: The Reform Clubhouse," Chambers Edinburgh Journal, vol. 602 (August 1843), p. 234.

(22)See Peter and Michael Angelo Nicholson, The Practical Cabinet Maker, Upholsterer and Complete Decorator (1826-1827; London, 1973), p. 6; and George Smith, The Cabinet-Maker's and Upholster's Guide, Drawing Book and Repository (London, 1828), p. 190.

(23)Crook, "The Reform Club," p. 3.

(24)The daybooks list "4 large mahogany ottomans [sofas] to fit recesses. frame with massive scroll [?] elaborately carved and ornamented, bronze pannels the backs seats sides & stuffed & covd in morocco leather" at [pound]29.15 each. ("Reform Club" AAD 13/8 1983 [1840-1842].)

(25)(London, 1846), p. 67.

(26)"Reform Club" AAD 13/8 1983 (1840-1842), Taprell, Holland and Son Daybooks.

(27)Gastronomic Regenerator, p. 69.