Marris & Norton (1875-1889)
Marris & Norton
Birmingham, Warwickshire; bedstead manufacturer, retailer, cabinet maker and upholsterer (fl.1875-89)
The 5 June 1875 issue of The Furniture Gazette described Marris & Norton's artistic, 'high-class' furniture on view in their Bull Street showrooms. The Early English style was popular, with Minton tiles or inlaid work employed to decorate sideboards and cabinet work, and the Pompeian style used for an ebony cabinet designed to display Wedgwood ware. ‘… in fact the firm can exhibit some of the finest sets of chairs in England, in brown oak, light oak and mahogany, in all styles, worthy of recommendation on account of their substantial and consistent character’.
They were listed in The Furniture Gazette Directory (1876 & 1877) at 26-28 Bull Street and expanded their showroom space in early autumn 1877 [The Furniture Gazette, 29 September 1877].
Marris & Norton, won a tender with a bid of £332 16s in 1882 to supply desks, fittings and chairs to the designs of Waterhouse, A.R.A., for the Boardroom of the Hove Commissioners, at the New Town Hall [The Furniture Gazette, 2 September 1882 & 6 January 1883]. In early 1885 they completed a commission to furnish a large mansion. This included a 10ft high by 5ft 6in wide satinwood cabinet for the drawing room which had been exhibited at their show rooms in July of that year. The Renaissance- style cabinet had carved boxwood panels with purplewood introduced into the panels. They also supplied chairs for the drawing room executed in rosewood and ivory, a large carved oak hall mantelpiece and overmantel, and a rosewood and satinwood inlaid mantelpiece. The dining room furniture was made of pollard oak and the bedroom furniture in rosewood [The Furniture Gazette, 1 August 1885].
The partnership was dissolved in January 1885 with the business continued by John Norton [The Furniture Gazette, 7 February & 1 March 1885]. He then advertised for a first-class cabinet salesman and a cabinet foreman [The Furniture Gazette, 1 March 1885].
The firm was listed at Corporation Street in The Furniture Gazette: Classified List of the Furniture, Upholstery, and Allied Trades (1886).
The Furniture Gazette recorded four commercial commissions of furniture:
- Cobden Coffee House, Birmingham [1 September 1883]
- Cobden Hotel, Birmingham [1 July 1885]
- Corporation Gallery, Birmingham [1 December 1885]
- Boardrooms and offices for the West Bromwich Board of Guardians [1 September 1887]
Marris & Norton participated in the Exhibition of Birmingham Manufactures, Bingley Hall, in 1886, with a display including a dining room suite in pollard oak, a drawing room suite in rosewood inlaid and a bedroom suite also in rosewood [The Furniture Gazette, 1 October 1886].
A fire destroyed the cabinet-making and upholstery premises in Corporation Street in 1888 causing substantial loss, however, fire insurance totalled just over £30,000. Fortunately the firm’s books and papers were saved in a safe and temporary premises at 21 ½ Cannon Street were acquired [The Furniture Gazette, 1 February 1888].
In 1888-9 Marris & Norton opened showrooms in Victoria Street, Corporation Street and moved to new premises in Fore Street [The Furniture Gazette, 1 April 1888 & 1 June 1889].
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