Graham & Biddle (1887-1907)
Graham & Biddle
Graham House, 463 Oxford Street, London; designers and manufacturers of artistic furniture, decorators, sanitary and electrical engineers (1887-1907)
The partners were William Edgar Graham and Frank Hayward Biddle, both previously partners in Jackson & Graham.
China Cabinet displayed at the Paris Exhibition, 1889 [The Furniture Gazette, 1 July 1889, p. 216, plate I].
Paris International Exhibition, 1889; the firm had a stand and also furnished the President's Reception Room. Furniture shown included:
- A Spanish mahogany vitrine
- Chairs
- A settee
- Various tables, most rosewood and inlaid with ivory (one illus. The Furniture Gazette, November 1889)
- A china cabinet
- Another smaller cabinet
- A Renaissance style cabinet on stand illus. [The Furniture Gazette, 1 July & 1 August 1889].
Arts & Crafts Exhibition, London, 1893; there were two pieces made by craftsmen of Graham & Biddle; a rosewood table designed by G.T. Irwin and executed C. Neilson (cat. no. 194) and a mahogany show table, designed by G. Trevor Irwin and executed by F. Zeile (cat. no. 211). These were illus. Cabinet Maker, November 1893. With both tables the name of the firm is shown in brackets after the individual makers' names in the catalogue descriptions.
A rosewood inlaid table, stamped and retailed by Graham & Biddle, and possibly made by Collinson & Lock, was auctioned by Bonhams, 21 April 2015, lot 141.
Ambrose Heal carried out work experience with Graham & Biddle, June 1892-September 1893.
There was a provisional patent for an improved flower stand and electric light standard combined, granted to the firm in 1890 [The Electrical Engineer, 1 January 1890] and in 1893 W.E. Graham and F.H. Biddle of 463 Oxford Street applied for a patent for ‘an improved self-right or swing bedstead for use on board all kinds of vessels’.
On 4 December 1907 Maple & Co. announced the half price sale at their Tottenham Court Road galleries of cabinet furniture and upholstery which they had purchased for cash from Graham & Biddle, following the dissolution of the latter’s partnership. The legal dissolution took place on 13 December 1907.
Source: Private correspondence with Martin Graham; Arts & Crafts Exhibition catalogues, 1888-1916.