Edwards, David

21 King St, Bloomsbury Sq., London; writing and dressing case maker to the Royal Family, inventor of the patent military travelling cases (1813–d. 1848) 

Addresses also given at 84 St James's St, 1813–14, and 5 Orange St in 1817. [D] Submitted bill dated 22 July 1813 to Robert Clavering Savage of Gloucester Pl., Portman Sq., London, and Elmley Castle, near Worcester, for a total of £11 13s 6d for a kingwood jewel case, and repairs to an old jewel case. Receipt dated 23 March 1814 is signed by J. Bacon. Bill heading lists stock which includes writing, dressing, plate and canteen cases, combs, brushes, cut glass and cutlery. [Worcs. RO, 4600/705: 505/763/3] Named in the Royal Household accounts on 19 December 1823 receiving £72 6s. For items supplied between 21 July 1824 and 1 May 1825 he was paid £78 11s 6d; and between 1824–27, £54 12s. [Windsor Royal Archives, RA35570, 35591, 89520] Submitted a bill, dated 18 December 1832, to John Arkwright of Hampton Court, Leominster, Herefs., for a rosewood tea chest costing £4 4s. On Edwards's death in 1848, his solicitors or creditors wrote to Arkwright requesting settlement of his account, £16 2s having been owed ‘some years.’ [Herefs. RO, Arkwright papers, A63/161] Portable writing desk of brass-bound rosewood recorded bearing inside the trade label of ‘EDWARDS, 21 KING STREET, HOLBORN’. Label also found on portable brass inlaid kingwood-veneered writing box containing two silver-stoppered glass containers with hallmarks for 1828 [Sotheby's, 10 July 1970, lot 17; 3 June 1977, lot 81]. David Edwards may also be the maker of the patent extending dining table with a lazy-tongs action underframe which has a die-stamped tablet with a Royal Coat of Arms and ‘EDWARDS PATENT’ (illus. Gilbert (1996), figs 310-312, sold Sotheby’s, 22 April 1994, lot 111).

Source: DEFM; Gilbert, Pictorial Dictionary of Marked London Furniture 1700-1840 (1996).