Mein, James snr

Kelso, Roxburghshire, Scotland; cabinet maker, upholsterer, carver, gilder, undertaker, decorator & appraiser (b.1759-d.1830)

James Mein was the senior member of a family business and uncle of James Mein jnr., who continued the business after his uncle's death in 1830 and until 1854.  Clients of James Mein, uncle and nephew, included the 5^th & 6^th Dukes of Roxburgh, and also Earls of Haddington.

A mahogany and oak card table dating from 1810-15 with a printed paper label in the frieze drawer reads: ‘JAMES MEIN Cabinet Maker Kelso 2d House above ye Butcher Market’ (illus. Jones, Regional Furniture (1993), fig. 49). Two wine slides made by Mein and dating to c.1820 with trade labels (op. cit., figs 96 and 97). The printed label on the underside of fig. 97 reads: ‘JAS. MEIN CABINET MAKER & UPHOLSTERER ROXBURGH STREET (KELSO) FUNERALS PERFORMED Carving, Gilding, Paperhanging & Decorating, Inventories & Valuations made. N0.17228’.

Mein is also associated with a documented example of a ‘Scotch chest’, a chest of drawers with a deep square top drawer used for the purpose of stowing hats. The earliest dated Scottish example that has come to light is an unusually well-labelled chest of drawers (Jones, ‘Scotch Chests’, Regional Furniture (1989), fig. 8) in a principal bedroom at Mellerstain, Berwickshire. Inside the central top drawer is pasted an elegant ‘Grecian’ label (op. cit. fig. 7), printed with the maker’s name; ‘James Mein, Cabinet Maker, Kelso’. Apart from indicating that Mein dealt in carpets and rugs, executed gilding and provided the service of undertaker, the label also bears the handwritten legend; ‘N° 14.459 Lindy’. This information is further expanded by a pencil inscription appearing on the divider immediately beneath the central drawer, which reads: ‘James Lindsay, Kelso, 1825’. In accordance with Mein’s repeated practice of including a number and an abbreviated surname written in ink at the base of his labels Lindsay would appear to be the name of the journeyman cabinet maker who made the chest. 

Another chest of drawers, late eighteenth/early nineteenth century, of softwood with mahogany veneer, and attached trade label [illustrated Cotton (2020), p. 110].

A mahogany winged wardrobe made by Mein was valued at £13 10s in an inventory and valuation of his effect following his death in 1830. Mein was succeeded by his nephew, also James Mein, who continued the business until 1854.

Sources: Jones, ‘Scotch Chests’, Regional Furniture (1989); Jones, ‘An Anthology of Regional Furniture with Maker's Identification’, Regional Furniture (1993); Jones, ‘William Trotter's Furniture for the 'Chinease' Rooms at Kinfauns Castle Perthshire’, Furniture History (1997); Cotton, Scottish Vernacular Furniture (2020).