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Barr, John & Sons (1865-1900)

Barr, John & Sons

London; upholsterers, wholesale chair and cabinet manufacturers (1865-c.1900)

Recorded as cabinet makers at 81 & 82 Old Street Road, London in the 1871 Kelly’s Post Office Directory and at 346-348 Old Street in The Furniture Gazette Directory (1877). Barr first advertised in The Furniture Gazette (5 January 1878) with the same Old Street address with works at Wilmer Gardens, Hoxton. The firm was recorded in The Furniture Gazette (13 May 1882) exhibiting at the Furniture Exhibition at the Agricultural Hall (illustrated) and in The Furniture Gazette (31 March & 12 May 1883) as exhibiting at the Third Annual Furniture Exhibition, held in the Agricultural Hall (illustrated). The Furniture Gazette (8 May 1885) announced that his partnership with W. F. Barr had been dissolved.

John Barr & Sons’ advertisement in the Cabinet Maker & Art Furnisher, 1886 (illustrated in Smith & Rogers (2006), p. 34) described the firm as wholesale & export chair and cabinet manufacturers and upholsterers, with warehouse and showrooms at Charlotte Street and a factory at 346-348 Old Street. The Furniture Gazette (1 January 1889) announced that the firm had published a new trade catalogue.

Source: Smith & Rogers, Behind the Veneer.  The South Shoreditch Furniture Trade and its Buildings (2006).