Foster, Edmund, Hull, Yorks., carver and gilder (c. 1762–1805). Rococo trade card, dating before 1784, gives address at the Golden Boy in the High Street’. Recorded in Lowgate from 1784–99; and North Church Side, 1803–05. He had branched out into bookselling by 1793. Trade card in the Castle Museum, York states that he ‘Executes in the ancient and modern Taste Chimney pieces, Coats of Arms, Compartments, Monuments, Tombs & Head Stones, Frames for Looking Glasses, Pictures & Marble Slabs, Gerandoles, Chandeliers, Consoles, Ornaments of Architecture & every other Ornament pertaining to ye Businesss in Marble, Stone & Wood. OIL & BURNISH'D GILDING. N.B. He proposes to keep (as at present) a Shop furnish'd with an elegant Assortment of Glasses in Gold, in White Frames, Gerandoles &c. ready for Sale.’ Foster was one of the leading carvers active in the East Riding during the second half of the 18th century. He supplied furniture to Burton Constable Hall, carved the splendid ornament in the Court Room of Beverley Guildhall, c. 1762–64, and executed, with other craftsmen, the organ-case in Beverley Minster designed by Thomas Lightoler in 1765. [D; Beverley poll bk; I. & E. Hall, Historic Beverley, pp. 25, and 49, figs 154–56] See James & Edward Foster.