Guilbaud, John (1691-1712)
Guilbaud (Guilliband), John
‘The Crown & Looking-Glass’, Long Acre, London; cabinet maker (fl. 1691-1712)
The trade card of John Guilbaud Cabinet Maker att the Crown and Looking Glasse in Long Aker, c. 1695 [60/2005]. © Museum of the Home, London
This maker’s name is spelled variously as Guilbaud/Guilliband in the Lord Chamblerlain’s accounts, and Gilbow or Gelbow in the rate books for Long Acre, but on his trade label it is spelled Guilbaud. It is likely that Guilbaud was a French Huguenot, for Huguenot records in London show a Jean Guilbaud married the daughter of the carver Jean Pelletier in 1691. Guilbaud was first named in the Long Acre rate books for 1693 and remained there until 1712.
In 31 July 1690 John Guilliband charged £30 for two scriptors ‘inlaid with flowers’ supplied for Queen Mary II. In the following year ‘a plain scriptoire’ was made for Whitehall Palace. In 1703 he was paid for two overmantel mirrors supplied to Hopetoun House, South Queensferry, Scotland.
A scriptor bearing Guilbaud’s trade label is in the Museum of the Home, London (illustrated above). It states that he sold ‘all manner of Cabbinet work and Japan Cabbinets, Large Tables, Small suets of all manner of Looking Glasses, Pannells of Glasse, Chimney peaces and all sorts of Glasse Sconces’.
Source: DEFM; Eleanor John, ‘A Cabinet by John Guilbaud’, FHS Newsletter (November 2001).
The original entry from Dictionary of English Furniture Makers, 1660-1840 can be found at British History Online.
Occupation
Material
Ornamentation/Design