Campbell, Collin (1882-1899)
Campbell, Collin
The Liver Works, West Derby Street, Liverpool, Lancashire; bedstead & mattress manufacturers, chair & couch manufacturers and general furniture manufacturers (fl.1882-c.1899s)
Campbell established a bedding manufacturing business c.1872 which quickly expanded to chair and cabinet making. By 1882 the factory comprised seven buildings and an adjoining hardwood timber yard.

Advertisement published in The Furniture Gazette, 21 October 1882, p. 284.
The Furniture Gazette, 21 October 1882, printed an advertisement for Collin Campbell and his sofas and couches in imitation hair seatings, hair seating, roanettes & American leather cloth. Editorial in the same publication gave a full description of the firm. The factory had distinctive workshops for carvers, sofa makers, upholsterers, polishers and chair makers, also a general upholstery workshop and a room for cutting out of plushes, velvets and tapestries.
Chairs were a major production for the firm, made up in quantities of 300-400 per design, particularly noteworthy ‘The Rutland’ and ‘The Cromwell’, with new designs regularly introduced into the range. Drawing room and dining room suites were made in mahogany, walnut and oak. Suites of drawing room furniture normally comprised nine pieces, but the firm also offered a range of seven pieces more suitable for smaller homes.
Bedroom furniture, mirrors, glasses and overmantels were kept in quantity for wholesale supply to the trade. Campbell also operated as upholstery warehousemen. The works were further expanded and reorganised in 1888 with the introduction of a new moulding machine, a patent spindle-turning machine and other types of labour-saving machinery. By this date the firm produced an average of fifty upholstered suites, which employed over 100 men, including eight specialist carvers.
The Furniture Gazette, 1 December 1888, summarised its work as of ‘good outline, strongly frames, enriched with heavy carving and well finished’ with customers extending throughout England.
Source: Agius, British Furniture 1880-1915 (1978).
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