Adams, George

London; upholder, cabinet maker, auctioneer and undertaker (fl.1777–1828)

Initially at 42 Haydon Sq., Minories, but from 1788 address changed to 122 Minories. Son of George Adams of Canterbury, innholder. App. to Joseph Merryman on 7 June 1769 and admitted freeman of the Upholders’ Co. on 6 August 1777 by servitude. In that year he took out insurance with the Sun Office for £900 of which £520 accounted for utensils and stock. On 6 May 1801 his son Thomas was admitted freeman of the Upholders’ Co. by patrimony. In 1802 the business is listed as George Adam & Son. Subscriber to Sheraton's Cabinet Dictionary, 1803. Several chairs, mostly in sets but including a single Windsor are known stamped ‘ADAMS 122 MINORIES LONDON’or variants of the wording (illus. Gilbert (1996), p. 64)[D; GL, Upholders’ Co. records; GL, Sun MS vol. 258, p. 28; Sotheby's, 16 April 1971, lot 177; Christie's, 8 May 1980, lot 24; C. Life, 3 December 1981, p. 54] Supplied several pieces of furniture Uniacke House, Hants. Co., Canada, including a set of 12 mahogany hall chairs bearing George Adams's printed paper trade label inscribed ‘George Adams, Upholder, Cabinet Maker, UNDERTAKER, Sworn Broker & Auctioneer, Corner of John Street MINORIES’. These items were supplied for the house which was built from 1813–15 for the Hon. Richard Uniacke who at the time was Attorney General for Nova Scotia (now the Nova Scotia Museum). [Material History Bulletin, 1980, pp. 57–61, also illus. Gilbert (1996), pp. 62-65).

Source: DEFM; Gilbert, Pictorial Dictionary of Marked London Furniture 1700-1840 (1996)