Davies (or Davis), T. & Griffin, Warwick and Newhall St, Birmingham, carver and gilders (1769–70). The firm advertised in the Birmingham Gazette, 4 September 1769, as ‘CARVERS in STONE and WOOD, at their Shops in Warwick and Birmingham’ who ‘perform all Sorts of Monuments, Chimney-Pieces and all Branches of HouseholdFurniture Ornaments, Ornamental Vases and Terms, in the Greek and Roman Taste, for Halls, Gardens, Walks etc’. In the advertisement Davies claims he is ‘well satisfied with the great Preference given to those Things I have executed in the Town to any other Person's, which may be seen at several Gentlemen's Houses in Birmingham and the Country, as well as my Shops …’. He also challenges his rival carver, E. Grubb, to a competition. Davies refers to ‘the Box I was carving for the Corporation to be presented to Mr. Garrick …’, the celebrated Shakespearean actor, by the Stratford-upon-Avon Corp. Bills show that the box was probably made by the joiner Thomas Taylor, then carved by Davies with four emblematic and theatrical scenes, one showing Garrick as King Lear during the storm, framed by Rococo scrolls. [D; British Museum Quarterly, vol. XXIV, no. 3–4, pp. 104–06] Possibly the gilder, Thomas Davies, who worked at Syon, or Thomas Davis, at Gibside.