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Hunter, William, J. R. & E. (1823-1891)

Hunter, William, J. R. & E.; Hunter,W. & J. R.

London; cabinet makers, upholsterers and timber merchants (fl.1823-1891)

William Hunter was recorded trading at 7 Finsbury Place South (c.1823) [trade card in Landauer Collection, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York]. Then at 30 Moorgate in 1835-39 as William Hunter & William Hunter & Son(s).

William, J. R. & E. Hunter at 30 Moorgate Street, were recorded as cabinet makers & upholsterers in the 1845 Post Office Directory and exhibited a walnut sideboard, with marble slab from Galway, and two chairs at the 1851 Great Exhibition, class 26.  

In 1871 W. & J. R. Hunter were trading from three locations: 30 Moorgate Street, Byde’s Place, Shoreditch; 18 Bethnal Green Road, and 40 & 41 Charlotte Street, Old Street Road [London Post Office Directory]. From 1876 onwards they were listed as timber merchants and cabinet makers at 18 Bethnal Green Road and Byde’s Place in Shoreditch, with an office at 30 Moorgate Street, [The Furniture Gazette Directory, 1876 & 1877].

They advertised in The Furniture Gazette from 1 July 1876 onwards, such as for 'a foreman and entering clerk, accustomed to the trade'; and for 'a clerk and salesman' [The Furniture Gazette, 15 December 1877]. 

On 18 October 1879, The Furniture Gazette announced that 'Messrs. Hunter were shortly to retire from their business at 57 Moorgate Street [but would] continue their wholesale timber trade as previously, from Bethnal Green Road'. The same notice stated that Mr John Finch, manager of one of the departments, was to continue the cabinet making business from 45 City Road [see Finch, John; Finch & Co. (1879-1889). 

A sale of the stock was held by Debenham, Tewson & Farmer on 27 October 1879, when a wardrobe and dressing table, exhibited at the 1867 Paris Exhibition, were sold for 185 guineas to one private individual [The Furniture Gazette, 18 October 1879]. 

An advertisement for W. Stevens & Co., at 65 Clifton Street, Finsbury, stated that Collins had been in the glass department of W. & J. R.. Hunter for thirty years and was now a looking glass and picture frame maker [The Furniture Gazette, 3 April 1880]. 

The Furniture Gazette, 1 March 1886, listed W. & J. R. Hunter, timber merchants, with the telegraphic address of ‘Sequoia, London’.  In 1891 Frederic Hunter, senior partner of W. & J. R. Hunter, carried out a valuation of the stock in trade, premises etc. for Henry Herrmann in London for its proposed incorporation as a public limited company.  

Sources: Meyer, Great Exhibitions. London, New York, Paris, Philadelphia. 1851-1900 (2006).