Conway, John

King’s Arms, south side of St Paul’s Churchyard, London; leather gilder, screen maker (fl. 1732-39)

Invoice from partnership of Conway and Joseph Fletcher, dated 14 October 1732 [illus. Furniture History (2000), p.74], states ‘Leather-Guilders, and Screen-Makers to his Majy. King George’. The remains of their trade card was discovered in an eight-leaf Chinoiserie gilt leather screen which in 1996-7 was in the possession of dealer, Paul Andrews. Conway continued the workshop after Fletcher’s death in October 1732 and until at least 1739; with the label of Conway only appearing on a screen in the collection of Sir John Ward at Dudley House, Park Lane [Connoisseur, April 1921]. In 1738 advertisement in London Gazette ‘John Conway, Leatherguilder and screenmaker to his Majesty at the King’s Arms, south side of St Paul’s Churchyard’. See also Joseph Fletcher.

Sources: DEFM, Koldeweij, ‘Gilt Leather Hangings in Chinoiserie and Other Styles: An English Speciality’, Furniture History (2000).