Bland, Matthew

Halifax, Yorks.; cabinet maker (fl.1793–1837)

Trading at 2 Broad St in 1837. Probably the Bland, cm of Halifax, who subscribed to Sheraton's Drawing Book, 1793. He, or his son, was later listed directories until 1850 as cabinet maker, upholsterer and timber merchant. By 1853 his name no longer appears.

The Halifax Guardian for 29 March 1851 included a long and enthusiastic description of a sideboard made by Bland for the Great Exhibition. The sideboard, of typical Victorian form and heavily adorned with carved vine leaves and bunches of grapes, survives (illus. FHS Newsletter (May 2005), p. 5).

Source: DEFM; Anderson, ‘A Great Exhibition Sideboard by Matthew Bland of Halifax’, FHS Newsletter (May 2005).