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Maddox, George; Maddox and Son (1850-1886)

Maddox, George; Maddox and Son

21 Baker Street, London; upholsterers, furniture makers, cabinet maker & art furniture maker (fl.c.1850-1886)

In the 1850s the firm was named Maddox and Son at the Baker Street address. 

George Maddox was recorded in London directories from c.1860 as an upholsterer and store warehouse keeper. His business address was 21 Baker Street and his warehouse was in Great Barlow Street, Marylebone. In 1871 he was also recorded using the address of 21 Blandford Mews.  

The Furniture Gazette Directory, 1876 & 1877 listed Maddox as a cabinet maker and art furniture maker.  The firm’s catalogues specialised in bedroom furniture. An issue of the Illustrated Catalogue of Bedroom Furniture, c. 1865 was based on the furniture exhibited at the International Exhibition of 1862. Extracts and illustrations taken from the 1882 catalogue, in which bedroom furniture was again prominent are shown in Joy (1977). This includes beds, dressing tables, wardrobes, wash-stands and chests. The Furniture Gazette, 10 April 1880, recorded Maddox & Son as making a Queen Anne style table for H.R.H. Prince Leopold.  He advertised for an upholsterers’ foreman & occasional salesman [The Furniture Gazette, 3 November 1877). 

Maddox retired in 1885 and thereafter his son concentrated on an auction, valuation & survey business For thirty-seven years George Maddox had been a cabinet maker & upholsterer, and was able to offer advice on these trades in the future [The Furniture Gazette, 1 June 1885]. 

The Furniture Gazette: Classified List of the Furniture, Upholstery and Allied Trades (1886) listed Maddox as Art Furniture Manufacturer and Merchant at 21 Baker Street, but possibly the publication was collated prior to 1886. 

Sources: Joy, Pictorial Dictionary of British 19th Century Furniture Design (1977); Agius, British Furniture 1880-1915 (1978).