Goslett, Alfred & Company (1835-1911)
Goslett, Alfred & Company
London; carvers, gilders, upholsterers, furniture and looking glass manufacturers (fl.1835-1911)
Goslett & Company was established in 1835. In 1870 directories they were listed at 26 Soho Square and 1 and 3 George Yard, Crown Street, Soho.
They advertised in The Furniture Gazette on many occasions beginning on the 4 April 1874 and again on 3 April 1880 when they illustrated overmantels of Goslett's design and manufacture. By 1882 they were listed as wholesale looking glass manufacturers at 26 Soho Square with works at Cockpit Yard, Little James Street, London.

Announcement in The Furniture Gazette, 7 October 1882, p. 242.
The Furniture Gazette, 7 October 1882, announced their publication of a pattern book, with chimney and jardinière glasses, girandoles and étagère, console tables and glasses, brackets and whatnots, fancy mirrors, cheval and toilet glasses and cornices & poles. They illustrated more overmantel mirrors in the 28 October 1882 and 2 August 1884 editions.
On the 2 August 1884, The Furniture Gazette described Goslett's latest catalogue entitled, ‘Designs of Mantels, Over Mantels, Console-tables, Jardinieres, Girandoles, Cheval and Toilet Glasses.’ They offered goods in oak, walnut or hardwood, with others made in all gold or black & gold, or more fancy styles, including a jardinière which converted into an ottoman seat. Their furniture was designed to appeal to the trade, public or for shop fitting, with trade prices listed separately from the main catalogue.
Their showrooms in Soho Square were described in the 1 March 1885 edition. Particularly noted were inlaid overmantels made in rosewood, walnut and satinwood in a choice of popular styles that included Chippendale and Adams. Also mentioned was a combined jardinière and mirror, with cabinets at the sides surmounted with shelves. A large stock of over 250,000 feet of plate glass was stored in the back of the Soho Square showroom and the factory in Little James Street was where the metallic silvering of glasses and the making of large Yorkshire stone topped tables took place.
In 1886 Alfred Goslett & Company was listed in The Furniture Gazette: Classified List of the Furniture, Upholstery, and Allied Trades as carvers, gilders and looking glass manufacturers at 26 Soho Square and 1 & 3 George Yard, Crown Street, London.
Bills (above) dated 1891 and 1906, for Alfred Goslett & Company, are included in the Graham Gadd Archive (NMS).
By 1911 they had extensive showrooms for cabinet ware and upholstered goods at 69-85 Tabernacle Street (illus. Smith & Rogers (2006), p. 29). Later in the twentieth century the firm specialised in the manufacture and sale of bathroom ware.
Sources: Smith & Rogers, Behind the Veneer. The South Shoreditch Furniture Trade and its Buildings (2006); Graham Gadd Archive (NMS)
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