Needham, William Frederick (1886-1901)
Needham, William Frederick
Birmingham; bamboo furniture manufacturer (fl.1886-1901)
This firm was one of the most important in the bamboo furniture trade, with factories at 69 Camden Street, Branston Street, Great Hampton Street and showrooms at Newhall Hill, Birmingham. The factory at 69 Camden Street consisted of a large three-storey building of 37,500 square feet where ‘every appliance adapted to expedite production and to insure good workmanship’ of bamboo and cane furniture was installed. This firm employed 240 workers (men & women) produced 4,000 pieces of furniture and 3,000 bamboo cornice poles per week by 1896.
An advertisement in Kelly’s Directory of Cabinet Furniture and Upholstery Trades in 1886 (illus. Agius (1978), p. 165) recorded the firm as ‘Sole Manufacturer and Patentee of Metal-Jointed and other Bamboo Furniture for home & export. Branston Street Works & Newhall Hill Works, Showrooms: Newhall Hill Works, Birmingham’. The interest in producing the best quality furniture led to further experimentation and a patent (no. 2383, February 1888); a method of construction involving metal shoes and covers for all joints which were made by wrapping a metal strip around the stems and soldering the overlapping ends.
The firm tailored their work for the export trade: ‘all tables are accurately fitted and the bamboo bars marked with numbers corresponding to those on the sockets, so that accurate and satisfactory fitting up is ensured... With a view to assisting merchants and shippers who have hitherto not traded in bamboo furniture, and who in placing a first order may not exactly know the most saleable items and those most economical for packing and transit, five sample cases have been made up, each case containing a selection of furniture always commanding a speedy sale. Estimates or designs will always be prepared upon necessary particulars being supplied’.
Their products were sold throughout the UK and exported to Europe and the Americas. Examples of advertised work including plant stands, tables and chairs (illus. Walkling (1979) pp. 98-102 & The Furniture Gazette, 1 February 1889).
Sources: Agius, British Furniture 1880-1915 (1978); Walkling, Antique Bamboo Furniture (1979).
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