Butler, Thomas (1787–1814)
Butler, Thomas
London; cabinet maker and upholder (fl.1787–1814)
Initially took employment as an attorney's clerk and was a part-time nonconformist minister at a chapel in Hitchin, Hertfordshire. Prior to 1787 he was in partnership with a person named Johnson trading as upholders and cabinet makers at 146 Strand. His partner was probably Edward Johnson, upholder and cabinet maker who in 1784 took out insurance cover of £600 on 14 Catherine Street, Strand.
The partnership had been dissolved by mutual consent by March 1787 and the stock was sold on 28 March 1787 by Christie. The auction catalogue bears a note that ‘THE BUSINESS will be carried on for the future by Mr. BUTLER in Catherine Street’. Seven days before the sale Butler had taken out insurance cover of £1,100 on the Catherine Street property. Initially he may have traded only from 14 Catherine Street but the numbers 13 and 14 are frequently listed as addresses.
By January 1800 he was claiming the patronage of the King and Queen, the Prince of Wales and the Duke of York but he was not one of the regular suppliers to the Royal Household. He did however supply the Prince of Wales in November 1802 with ‘Two Elegant mahogany Library Writing Tables of curious fine wood richly inlaid with different curious woods’ for which £39 10s was charged.
Late in 1800 Butler decided to dispose of this business and two of his employees, Thomas Morgan and Joseph Sanders expressed an interest in purchasing it. To their great annoyance Butler sold it to Thomas Oxenham of Oxford Street, and Morgan and Sanders promptly set up business close at hand at 16 and 17 Catherine Street in bitter opposition. Oxenham soon tired of the Catherine Street premises and had moved the manufacture of furniture to his Oxford Street address by April 1802.
Letterhead and receipt of Thomas Butler at No 13 & 14 Catherine Street, Strand, 28 April 1804 [Heal,125.14]. © The Trustees of the British Museum
Thomas Butler therefore once more set up production at his old address and in 1803 was included in the list of master cabinet makers in Sheraton's Cabinet Dictionary. In 1804 he had a timber yard at Pegasus Yard, Savoy. By this date the business that Butler was conducting in Catherine Street was of substantial size and utilised not only 13 and 14 but the properties behind at 4 to 7 Helmet Court. Insurance cover was for £3,500 of which £2,000 was for utensils and stock.
In 1810 Butler retired for the second time selling the business to Edward Argles who had previously traded as a cabinet maker and upholder in Maidstone, Kent. Argles was however declared bankrupt in 1813 and Butler once more commenced business in Catherine Street late in that year. He offered existing stock at trade prices and especially mentioned ‘a very superb and truly elegant Temple Book Case suitable for one of the first Libraries, considered worth £250 will be sold under its value’.
He may have been merely disposing of Argles's stock for in September 1814 he had ceased business finally and by April 1816 Morgan & Sanders were able to advertise that they had taken ‘a considerable part of Mr. Butler's late Ware-rooms’. Butler's speciality was the production of patent furniture.
Trade card of Thomas Butler advertising 'For the patent BEDSTEADS, CHAIR BEDS, SOFA BEDS & new invented DINING TABLES, 1806 [D,2.1280]. © The Trustees of the British Museum
He took out no patents of his own but exploited that granted to Thomas Waldron of 11 Catherine Street on 4 June 1785 (patent 1483). This concerned the construction of bedsteads without the use screws or nuts and bolts, to facilitate easy assembly. Butler marked such patent furniture with brass plates in common with other makers in this line. These have been found on a number of extending dining tables, on bedsteads and chairs that converted into bedsteads. He claimed that his bedsteads were ‘admired for their absolute Prevention of Vermin’ and stated that his beds and bedding were ‘calculated for the East and West Indies. Ships Cabins furnished. Articles particularly adapted for travelling and for exportation’. Although never patented, in the early years of the 19th century he also manufactured the ‘Imperial’ table which not only extended but also packed flat. The invention was claimed by Thomas Morgan presumably during the period when he worked for Butler. Butler’s trade label and a number of his patent beds and extending tables are illustrated in Gilbert (1996), figs 165-180.
Source: DEFM; London Metropolitan Archive, Sun Insurance records: MS vol. 342, ref. 528300; vol. 419, ref. 718867; vol. 431, ref. 769048; vol. 445, ref. 823984; vol. 448, ref. 832048; Kirkham, ’The London Furniture Trade 1700-1870’, Furniture History (1988); Gilbert, Pictorial Dictionary of Marked London Furniture 1700-1840 (1996).
The original entry from Dictionary of English Furniture Makers, 1660-1840 can be found at British History Online.