Moore, Thomas

Finsbury, London, carpet weave, upholsterer and retailer (1756–78).

Situated at the ‘Bishop Blaze’, 77 Chiswell Street. 

A trade card in the British Museum Heal Collection shows mitred figure holding wool-comb and book, with Rococo decoration surrounding sheep, cushions and a loom. Card reads, ‘Thomas Moore, Hosier and Manufacturer — At the Bishop Blaze Chiswell Street, LONDON, Makes and Sells both for Foreign Trade and Home Consumption all sorts of Silk Cotton Thread & Worsted Hose. Frame-knit Pieces for Waistcoats and Breeches of every kind, with Cotton, Thread, Silk and Worsted-Caps. Thread, Cotton, Worsted and Silk Mitts and Gloves, Silk Purses &c. Also any Sort of Unwrought Materials for making the Said Goods. NB. He being THE FIRST in England engaged in making THE ROYAL VELVET TAPESTRY, after the manner of the Persians: has now with many Improvements brought the ‘manufactory of CARPETS, SCREENS, SEATS of CHAIRS &c. to the greatest perfection — Both for Beauty, and Cheapness.’ 

Possibly the Thomas Moore of London who submitted a bill dated 12 February 1759 for eight tapestry seats costing £4, and four large ones costing £2 12s supplied to Dumfries House, Scotland, although the character of the panels resembles the work of Peter Parisot [V&A archives].

Thomas Moore supplied carpets to Horace Walpole and Lord Coventry; and a carpet with his name woven in was made for Syon House, dated 1769. More carpets are known, including those in the Drawing Roomand Tapestry Room at Osterley Park, Middlesex [Heal; guide book to Osterley].

Moore submitted a bill totalling £115 5s 10d to Sir Thomas Egerton, Bart (later 1st Earl of Wilton) at Heaton House, Manchester. On 17 May 1776 he charged £84 for ‘a very fine Persian carpet Circular of 24 feet in diameter made from Mr. Wyatts design’, being James Wyatt, the architect of Heaton House. This carpet (now sold and untraced) was intended for the circular domed room in the Etruscan taste, known as the Dowager Lady Egerton's Dressing Room. At the same time, Moore supplied ‘a yard wide Green Baize Cover for Containing 73 yards’, at £6 13s 10d; and charged £3 3s for ‘painting the pattern at large’. On 13 July he charged £20 18s 6d for ‘93 Yards of ¾ inde Green Stair Case Carpettry’ [Manchester Record Office, DDEg 41 (1); Burlington, December 1977, pp. 840–48].

Source: DEFM