Arbunot, Jacob

London; cabinet maker and looking-glass manufacturer (fl.1691–d. 1722)

Recorded in Rate Books on the south side of London Acre from 1691 until at least 1709. According to the 1694 rate book for the 4s in the £ tax, the rental of the property was £8 per annum and the stock was valued at £100. 

In 1709 he moved to near Hungerford Market, Strand, but in 1715 established himself at ‘The Royal Cabinet’ over against Church Court, Strand. Almost immediately after moving he suffered a fire at this new premises. It was reported in The Post Man, 27 October 1715, that ‘a great many of his Glasses have been broke, having had not time to move, the Fire being all round him, as well as many of his Household Goods’. 

He was dead by 21 February 1722 when his son and executor, James, was in charge. The business appears to have closed down in 1727, based on an announcement in the Daily Post of 22 March refers to ‘leaving off Trade’ and the disposal of stock including pier-glasses.

A bill survives in the Petworth House archives from Arbunot to Elizabeth Seymour, Duchess of Somerset  for 'a walnut-framed looking glass in the new arched style' [Lim, Furniture History, p. 13]. 

Source: DEFM; Adam Bowett & Laurie Lindey, ‘Looking for Gerrit Jensen’, Furniture History (2017); Amy Lim, 'The Furniture Patronage of Elizabeth Seymour (nèe Percy), Duchess of Somerset, 1667-1722', Furniture History (2021), p. 12-13.