Petersen, O

London; cabinet maker (fl. 1864-76)

Ole Petersen, a Dane by birth, sometimes spelt Peterson, died on 30 September 1876, having worked 'almost exclusively' for Jackson & Graham over a number of years. It was reported that he had ‘suffered mental injury in consequence of the severe study required for the execution of this difficult work’; this probably referred to the furniture he produced for the firm which was exhibited at the Paris Exhibition 1878.  Probate was granted to his elder brother, Christian, also cabinet maker living with Ole at 28 Bassett Street, Kentish Town.   

His obituary in The Furniture Gazette, 14 October 1876, stated his recorded furniture included the large ebony and ivory cabinet, the lower part of which had been exhibited at the Paris Exhibition, which when completed had then been shown at the Vienna Exhibition. He made the large inlaid cabinet designed by Owen Jones for Alfred Morrison and another elaborate, smaller cabinet designed by Lorimer for H. Brassey M.P.   Petersen had also produced the garniture of clock-case and vases which were to be exhibited in Paris in 1878 and one other piece.

Sources: Royal Society of Arts, Artisan Reports on the Paris Universal Exhibition of 1878; Edwards, ‘The Firm of Jackson and Graham’, Furniture History (1998).