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Nicholls, Thomas (1851-1900)

Nicholls, Thomas

Lambeth, London; carver (fl.1851-1900)

Nicholls carved the reredos for Waltham Abbey, Essex of which a plaster cast was exhibited in the Medieval Court at the 1862 International Exhibition. He also carved the Golden Bed designed by William Burges for the guest room in his home, The Tower House, Melbury Road, Kensington. The bedstead (illustrated below) is entirely gilded and painted except for the top rail of the bed head, foot board and side boards which are of polished wood. It was made in 1879 by John Walden of Maiden Lane, Covent Garden. Burges’s estimate book on 25 June 1879 recorded ‘Carving to Bedstead Guests room Nicholls 15/15/0. The bed is now part of the V&A collection.

Image
The Golden Bed
Copyright (Attribution/Credit)
© Victoria and Albert Museum, London

Mahogany and pine, carved, stencilled, gilded and inlaid with a painted panel by Fred Weekes with Latin inscription at the foot of the bed 'VITA NOVA and on the back of the headboard, WILLIAM BURGES ME FIERI FECITANNO DOMINI MDCCCLXXIX, 1879 [W.5:1 to 10-1953]. © Victoria and Albert Museum, London

The Furniture Gazette, 1 March 1887, recorded Nicholls as the carver an oak memorial screen and reredos for St. Michael’s Church, near Tiverton, Bath.

Source:  Donnelly, ‘Rapture and Ridicule – Furniture in the 1862 Medieval Court’, The Journal of the Decorative Arts Society 1850 to the Present (2014).