Davis, John

20 Lower Brook St, Grosvenor Sq., London; cabinet maker and upholder (fl.1820–27)

Established his business in Brook Street 1820 with £200 capital and £100 of stock. Recorded at no. 29 in 1823. Supplied furniture for Lord Belgrave's house in Grosvenor Sq., 1823–24. Between 1822 and 1825 supplied Lord Grosvenor with furniture for Eaton Hall, Cheshire, to the value of £14,491 10s. 6d. This included 171 chairs, 3 chaises longues, 1 state bed, 7 tester beds, 9 sets of bed hangings, 6 wardrobes and 3 settees. The bill survives in the Grosvenor archives. The state bed, in Gothic Style, survives and is illustrated in Lindfield-Ott, Furniture History (2012), fig. 19. Davis was married to the daughter of a gentleman, née Miss Packer, whose friends, he complained, did not like his being in trade.

Source: DEFM; Kirkham, ‘London Furniture Trade’, Furniture History (1988), pp. 89 & 92; Lindfield-Ott, ‘The Furnishing of a Gothic Fantasy: Eaton Hall, Cheshire’, Furniture History (2012); Lindfield, ‘William Porden's State Bed for Eaton Hall, Cheshire’, Furniture History (2017).