Ashlin, William, 6 Belton St, Long Acre and 68 Strand, London, carver, gilder and looking-glass maker (1789–1826). Initially trading solely from the Belton St address. By 1796 the Strand address was also in use and the business was referred to as Ashlin & Collings (or Ashlin & Co.). By 1821 the trading style had changed again to Ashlin, Collings & Ashlin. A pair of gilt tables bearing the trade label of Ashlin & Holland, Strand, London, sold at Sotheby's, NY on 13 December 1980 (lot 73) were almost certainly produced by this business. An earlier trade card of 1798 is in the Banks Coll., BM. [D] Submitted an estimate of £2,500 for work done at Carlton House, London, for the Prince of Wales. [H. Clifford Smith, Buckingham Palace, p. 104] Worked at Althorp, Northants., submitting an account on 2 October 1790 for repolishing a French plate, cutting a plate into bookcase door, and insurance amounting to £234 6s. A further sum of £10 12s was charged on 26 March 1791, which included £7 7s for an ebony dress frame inlaid with Prince's metal. [V & A archives] In August 1798 supplied Lord John Russell (later 6th Duke of Bedford) with a looking-glass in a burnished gilt frame at a cost of £28 19s. [Bedford Office, London] On 7 February 1811 an account for £121 9s 6d was submitted to Nicholas Pearse of Loughton, Essex, and Marylebone, London, for a mirror and frame. [Essex RO, D/DHt A1/3] The firm supplied items to the Royal Pavilion, Brighton, receiving £9,054 5s 7d between 1817–23 for plate and looking-glass. This included £701 17s for the chimney-glass in the Music Room, and £976 10s for those in the Banqueting Room. A further payment of £228 was made on 30 June 1826. [Wills, Looking-Glasses; RA, 35606] In 1821 the firm charged £2 12s 6d to Georgiana, Duchess of Bedford, for a lookingglass with a shaped frame with ‘flannel to the back’, for her dressing room at St James's Sq., London. [Bedford Office, London] B.A.