Giles, John 

'Two Candlesticks and Bell’, Addle Street, London; brass and cabinet founder (d.1740) 

Some tradesmen like John Giles, specialised in furniture hardware. Giles was particularly well suited to supply the furniture trade because during the first half of the eighteenth century his neighbourhood was populated with scores of furniture makers, like the cabinetmakers Hugh Granger, Daniel Bayley, William Palleday, and Lazarus Stiles. An inventory recorded after Giles’s death in 1740 (as a result of a dispute between members of Giles’s family), indicates that he was supplying furniture makers across London, such as the cabinetmakers John Belchier of St. Paul’s Churchyard, William and John Linnell, William Hallett, Peter Hasert of Covent Garden, and William Bradshaw in Soho.

Giles’s inventory is a fascinating document which merits future research; it includes the names of hundreds of tradesmen and demonstrates the diverse range of supplies that brass founders stocked. In addition to materials clearly intended for the furniture trade – thousands of nails [silvered, gilt, and plain], cabinet hinges, ‘bow’ latches, brass locks and heading chisels – he also had candlesticks, escutcheon plates, gilt French Gerondoles [sic], ten children’s coffin sets, bell lamps, and ‘a Small nest of Crusibles’.

Image

Copyright (Attribution/Credit)

© The Trustees of the British Museum

Trade card of John Giles and Shadrach Mulliner, at the ‘Two Candlesticks and Bell’, Addle Street, near Wood Street, c.1740 [85.120]. © The Trustees of the British Museum

Source: TNA, C 11/2488/18, An account of the personal estate of John Giles, brass founder in Aldermanbury, Cripplegate Within.