Makers, Periods & Styles Library

S. & H. Jewell were cabinet makers with premises in Little Queen Street, Holborn, in London. They were founded in 1830 and were a family business. They are listed as having sold their furniture to Standen House, the Arts & Crafts home in East Grinstead. They also restored antiques and sold them from their London...

Is a type of large metal kettle of a particular design used to heat and boil water usually for making tea. The word literally means ‘self-boiler’ and the particular design. This comprises a metal body with a tap or taps, set on legs or a base and a vertical pipe that holds solid fuel which […]

Satinwood is so called because of its satin-like sheen. It is hard and durable wood and is very popular for cabinet making and is particularly used in marquetry. It comes from tropical trees from the tree family ‘Rutaceae’ which are native to southern India, Sri Lanka, Madagascar, South East Asia, Australia and...

A Secretaire a abattant describes a French tall writing desk that has a door flap that comes down to create the writing surface. The cabinet usually contains drawers and pigeon holes. The lower part can either be a cupboard with two doors or sometimes it contains drawers.

Sevres Porcelain denotes the wares produced by the once royal owned ‘Manufacture Nationale de Sevres’ in France which came to dominate European porcelain making in the mid 18th century and still survives today. The factory traces its roots to early craftsmen who had small manufacturing operations in Lille,...

Thomas Sheraton (1751 – 1806) was a renowned English cabinet maker and a leading exponent of Neoclassicism. His name became synonymous with a style of furniture that was characterised as a feminine refinement of the later Georgian styles. His work was the most influential source of inspiration for furniture in the...

James Shoolbred was a retailer of furnishing textiles and carpets establishing his shop in Tottenham Court Road in London during the 1820s. By the 1880s the enterprise had expanded so much that they business had to move and became a early type of department store. The new store was extremely popular, mainly because...

Smith Premier Typewriter Company started producing typewriters in 1886 with the claim to fame that their machines could produce both uppercase and lowercase letters. The company was formed by the four Smith brothers: Lyman Cornelius, Wilbert, Monroe C. and Hurlburt. The first typewriter to bear the Smith name was...