Gregory, Charles; Gregory & Co. (1859-1940)
Gregory, Charles; Gregory & Co.
London; furniture makers, carpet dealers, decorators and antiques dealers (fl.1823-c.1940)
Early 20th century advertisements date the establishment of the firm to 1823 and record the founder as Charles Gregory (from Waterloo House). He was born in 1798, Manchester. The business initially sold carpets and printed furniture from 212 Regent Street, London, progressing into the manufacture of furniture of English (Old English and then Art designs) and European styles, and from c. 1900 retailing original and reproduction English furniture.
In the 1870s, Gregory and Company was particularly known for producing ‘artistic’ furniture and employed designers like Charles Bevan, who designed a carved and inlaid light oak medieval sideboard with mirrors displayed at the 1873 London International Exhibition [The Furniture Gazette, 10 & 31 May 1873 and 20 June & 15 August 1874].
The Furniture Gazette, 11 December 1880, recorded the commission of furniture for the Princess Theatre, London, and The Furniture Gazette, 6 May 1882, illustrated a cabinet/bookcase made of mahogany and lime wood inlaid.
An advertisement of 1885 shows that the firm’s range of furniture also included European styles, ‘Marqueterie Furniture in Natural woods, after best French & Italian examples, some of the most beautiful works ever produced in this country. Manufactured by GREGORY & CO. 212, 214 & 216 Regent Street, London, W. Factory, Dufours Place, London’ (Truth, 9 July 1885).
The Furniture Gazette, 30 November 1878, illustrated drawing room furniture exhibited in the Paris Exhibition, 1878 by Gregory & Co. which had been purchased by the Rothschild family, who also placed a further commission of furniture. The business was awarded a bronze Exhibition medal for their cabinet furniture.
Other exhibitions in which the firm participated were:
- Vienna Exhibition, 1873. Gregory & Co. exhibited a medieval-style sideboard, almost 11ft. high.
- Exhibition of Ancient and Modern Furniture, 1875, held in connection with the City and Spitalfields School of Art, to which the firm lent a small Japanese cabinet [The Furniture Gazette, 3 April 1875]
- Exhibition of Works of Art applied to Furniture, May 1881, held at the Royal Albert Hall [The Furniture Gazette, 7 & 28 May 1881]
- Exhibition of Modern Furniture, 1881, held by the Society of Arts at the same venue [The Furniture Gazette, 29 October 1881].
- The Huddersfield Technical School Exhibition, 1883, with inlaid furniture, chairs and an old Florentine cabinet [The Furniture Gazette, 4 August 1883].
- Arts & Crafts Exhibition, 1890, a sideboard in Italian walnut designed by Edwin Foley (son of Arthur Foley), cabinet work by Thomas Jelleffe (possibly T. Jeliffe), carving by J. Johnson, and made under the supervision of W.B. Collins (cat. no. 359) [The Furniture Gazette, 15 November 1890].
- Chicago’s Columbian Exhibition, 1893, with ‘carved walnut sideboard, side table, chimney piece and overmantel, chairs, settee, and decorations in Italian style, carved mahogany Chippendale bookcase, chairs, tables and decorations’.
By 1890 Gregory & Co. also advertised as Art Decorators, using wallpapers, by leading British designers such as Walter Crane, also French, Spanish and Japanese styles (The Queen, 2 May 1891).
In recent years stamped pieces on the market have included:
- Two pairs of ‘Thomas Hope’ style chairs made c .1870 (Christie’s, London, 15 November 2017, lot 103) and Bonhams London, 6 March 2013, lot 206)
- An aesthetic style ebonised wall cabinet (Sworders, 4 September 2012, lot 384)
- An aesthetic movement ebonised and parquetry chiffonier (Christie’s South Kensington, 26 January 2000, lot 310)
- A set of 16 George III style mahogany dining chairs (Sotheby’s London, 5 June 2007, lot 142A);
- A French neo-classical side cabinet, mounted with gilt, painted with flowers and inlaid with olive, plum, rosewood, purpleheart and ebony (Hamptons’ Godalming, 17 January 2001).
- Two bedroom suites were purchased from Gregory & Co., by George Peabody Wetmore, c. 1877, for his Rhode Island house, Chateau-sur-Mer. Mrs Christine P Rosengarten subsequently gave a firescreen with stained glass panel, a slipper chair and a small table all of which were of rosewood from one of these suites to the Philadelphia Museum of Art in 1969 (1969-197-6, 1969-197-16 & 1969-197-7).
Other information relating to Gregory & Co. included a court case in 1884 when James Bradley (a 26 year old clerk with the firm) was taken to court by them for embezzlement and stealing goods. The evidence was that Bradley had suppressed numerous letters given to him for appropriating the postage stamps, which had caused great inconvenience to the business. The prisoner was committed to three months imprisonment with hard labour [The Furniture Gazette, 6 December 1884]. Mr J. Smith had retired from the firm [The Furniture Gazette, 17 January 1885].
Kelly’s Trade directories recorded Charles Gregory at White Hart Inn Yard, 62 Borough High Street (1859); 212 Regent Street (1861); 212 Regent Street & 29 Argyll Street (1866); then as Gregory & Co. ‘importers of Persian and Indian rugs, cabinet makers and furniture printers’ (1869), 212 & 214 Regent Street and 45-46 King Street, Golden Square (1871 & 78); 212, 214 & 216 Regent Street (1892).
In October 1898 Liberty & Co. (Ltd) announced that they ‘have acquired the extensive premises of Messrs. Gregory & Co. (Carpet Importers, Cabinet Makers and Upholsterers) of 212, 214 and 216 Regent Street for the further development of their business….have also purchased the whole of MESSRS. GREGORY & CO.’S stocks which will be on sale at such prices as will ensure an ABSOLUTE CLEARANCE’ (Daily Telegraph, 7 October 1898).
Gregory & Co. moved to 19 Old Cavendish Street and in the first decade of the twentieth century specialised in period decorations and the sale of ‘the finest genuine old English furniture’. A Country Life advertisement for the firm in the 1920s stated that Gregory & Co., 19 Old Cavendish Street, held ‘a selection of the finest genuine old English furniture… Also many other interesting old English pieces in oak and walnut’ with an illustration of ‘a fine English 17th century carved oak narrow court cupboard’. Directories listed the firm at Old Cavendish Street & Henrietta Passage (1899); Bruton Street (1929-30).
Ancestral records show that the probate notice of 20 April 1877 for Charles Gregory snr. notes his address as late of Rosslyn Grove Hampstead with his two nephews, Thomas of 2 Albert Terrace, Regent’s Park and George of Rosslyn Grove, Hampstead as two of the executors. Thomas (1840-1907) was recorded in census as carpet merchant (1881 and 1891). Another nephew, the eldest brother Charles, also briefly entered the same trade but he died in 1862. Thomas was succeeded by his son, John Redmayne (1871-1935). At the time of John Redmayne’s death he was recorded with the addresses of 27 Bruton Street and Montagu Mansions, London.
Also of interest, Mary Froggatt Gregory (1832-1916), the oldest daughter of Thomas Gregory, younger brother of Charles Gregory snr., married John Graham, brother of Peter and Forster Graham (of Jackson & Graham).
Sources: Agius, British Furniture 1880-1915 (1978); review of the Arts & Crafts Exhibition catalogues, 1888-1916; Payne, British Furniture 1820-1920: The Luxury Market (2023); Graham family records (kindly supplied by Martin Graham, September 2024).
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