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Jones & Willis; Newton, Jones & Willis (1847-1930)

Jones & Willis; Newton, Jones & Willis

Birmingham & London; church furnishers (fl.1847-1930)

Established in Birmingham c. 1847 the firm was originally called Newton, Jones & Willis. By 1858 they were known as Jones & Willis. By this date they held the royal warrant as silk mercers and over the next seventy-five years produced more than eighty illustrated catalogues of church furnishings, both textile & furniture.

In 1874 they were located at Temple Row in Birmingham, with showrooms at 43 Great Russell Street and workshops Stanhope Street, in London.

Jones & Willis were listed as church furniture makers, cabinet carvers & gilders and art metal workers at 16 Temple Row, Birmingham and 260 Euston Road & 43 Great Russell Street, London [The Furniture Gazette Directory, 1876]; and as church decorators and furniture manufacturers (at the same addresses), with the works in Euston Road having expanded to 260, 262 & 264 in 1886 [The Furniture Gazette: Classified List of at the Furniture, Upholstery, and Allied Trades]. In 1914 they had works at Porchester Street, Birmingham, and Eagle Works in Hornsey, London, with their showrooms still at 43 Great Russell Street, London.

Jones & Willis had become a limited company in 1903 and in the early 20th century took over the Birmingham Guild of Handicraft.

Exhibitions published in The Furniture Gazette, 1851-1889:

  • Great Exhibition (1851): Newton, Jones & Willis displayed episcopal robes, silk damask hangings & velvet pile carpets 
  • London International Exhibition (1862): Jones & Willis showed church furniture in Class XXX
  • Vienna Exhibition (1873): Jones & Willis exhibited a seven-branch brass sanctuary lamp over thirteen ft tall, made for gas
  • Paris International Exhibition (1878): Church furniture in connection with the Church Congress, Stoke on Trent in 1875 
  • Exhibition of Church Furniture, Sheffield (1878)
  • Fine Art and Industrial Exhibition, York (1879): Medal winner  
  • Ecclesiastical Art Exhibition, Leicester (1880)  
  • Building Exhibition, Worcester (1882): An elaborate reredos and other church furnishings
  • Fine Art & Industrial Exhibition, Manchester (1882) 
  • 1st Annual Manufacturing Exhibition of Medieval, High Art & Ecclesiastical Furniture, Humphrey’s Hall, London (1883): Carved oak eagle lectern 
  • Ecclesiastical Art Exhibition, Reading (1883) 
  • Industrial & Fine Art Exhibition, Wolverhampton (1884): Ecclesiastical furniture, mainly in metal ornamental lamp stands in metal
  • International Inventions Exhibition (1885) 
  • Ecclesiastical Art Exhibition, St Andrew’s and Blackfriars’ Halls, Norwich (1889)

Commissions filled by Jones & Willis published in The Furniture Gazette, 1879-1891:

  • Nettleton Parish Church, Lincoln (January, 1879): Reredos
  • Water Orton Church (October 1879): Pulpit, reading desk & lectern 
  • Brecon Parish Church (January 1880): Carved oak reredos with hand-painted tiles
  • St Matthias Church, Sheffield (March 1880): Choir stalls
  • Maghall Church (October 1880): Oak lectern & other furniture
  • St. Elizabeth’s Church, Ashley (October 1880): Interior fittings
  • All Saints, Grinshill, Shropshire (December 1880): Furniture
  • Holy Trinity Church, Crouch Hill, London (January, 1881): Brass lectern, gas fittings and furniture 
  • Wolston Church, Coventry; (January, 1881): Oak pulpit, reading desk and seat for brass lectern for Rev. Mr Biggs of the Malacca Chaplaincy, Straits Settlement
  • St John the Baptist, the Baptist Church, Hulme, Manchester (January, 1881): Reredos
  • Winshill Church, Burton on Trent (January, 1881): Oak choir seats
  • Church St. Cuthbert’s Pandon, Newcastle-on-Tyne (February, 1881): Litany desk etc. 
  • Christ Church Cathedral, New Zealand (April, 1881): Furniture entrusted to them by the architect, B.W. Mountford. This was the largest shipment of church furniture for New Zealand at this date
  • St James’ Church, Halifax (April, 1881): Pulpit
  • St Margaret Church, Burton-upon-Trent (May, 1881): Furniture, apart from the pulpit and lectern
  • Worcester Cathedral (May, 1881): Brass lectern with a brass railing as a memorial to the late Dean Yorke 
  • St Peter’s Church, Mansfield [May, 1881): Brass eagle lectern
  • Swynnerton Parish Church (June, 1881): Reredos
  • St Emmanuel Church, Lockwood, Huddersfield (October, 1881): Ornamental reredos
  • Frisby Church, Leicester (December, 1881): Reredos,
  • Worcester County Asylum, Powick (February, 1882): Brass eagle lectern
  • St Chad’s Mission Church, Smethwick (May, 1882): Lectern, pulpit and font
  • Gwyddelwernpant Church, North Wales (June, 1882): Oak lectern
  • Hulme Walfield Church (July, 1882): Lectern
  • St Nicholas’s Church, Lower Tower Street, Birmingham (October, 1882) Pulpit to the design of J. Cotton 
  • Trinity Church, Llandudno (November, 1882): Set of oak choir stalls 
  • All Saints’ Church, Middleton Park, Friern Barnet January, 1883): Altar furniture & chairs
  • Leeds Church, Kent (February, 1883): Brass eagle lectern 
  • Market Drayton Church (March, 1883): Carved oak reredos
  • St Peter’s Church, Preston (March, 1883): Brass eagle lectern
  • St Peter’s Church, Earley (April, 1883): Communion rails and gas standard lamps
  • St Mary’s Church, Clonmel, Ireland (June, 1883): Brass eagle lectern
  • Alwinton Church, Cumberland (June, 1883): Carved oak reredos
  • St James’ Church, Wednesbury (August, 1883): Pulpit of chaste design
  • Trinity Church, Leeds (September, 1883): Brass lectern 
  • St Mary’s Church, Waterloo, near Liverpool (December, 1883): Pulpit, font and brass lectern
  • Old Radford Church, near Nottingham (January, 1884): Pulpit and a massive polished brass eagle lectern
  • St John’s Church, Leamington (August, 1884): Clergy & choir stalls
  • Church of St Phillip’s, Birmingham (October, 1884): Choir stalls
  • Christ Church, Bewick Road, Gateshead (November, 1884): Lectern,
  • Kirkby Ravensworth Church (May, 1885): Reredos 
  • Magourney Church, Ireland (May, 1885): Pulpit
  • Lea Memorial Church, Birmingham (July, 1885): Choir stalls and handsomely carved Bishops chair 
  • St. James’s Church, Clapham (May, 1887): Organ screen 
  • Brewood Church (October, 1887): Choir stalls
  • Tunstead Parish Church (January, 1888): Oak eagle lectern
  • Catholic Church of St. Bartholomew, Rainhill, Lancashire (July, 1888): Seating
  • Ratby Church, near Leicester (January, 1889): Brass eagle lectern
  • Ilkley Parish Church (August, 1889): Pulpit
  • Warley Church, near Halifax (October, 1891): Reredos

Amongst non-ecclesiastical commissions was a stand for the museum section of the new building of the Leeds & Yorkshire Architectural Society, Albion Street, Leeds (September, 1883).

The firm advertised in The Furniture Gazette from 1 July 1876 and also published staff vacancies in the publication including ‘an experienced salesman with an interest in church work [8 January 1881]. 

Sources: Gere & Whiteway, Nineteenth-Century Design. From Pugin to Mackintosh (1993); Meyer, Great Exhibitions. London, New York, Paris, Philadelphia. 1851-1900 (2006).