Phillips, John

London; cabinet maker (fl. 1725–62)

London Joiners’ Company records list several men named John Phillips apprenticed and made free in the period 1700-1710. In May 1725, Phillips purchased insurance for property at ‘the corner of St Paul's Chain in St Paul's Churchyard’ to cover £1,000 on goods and merchandise in his dwelling house. He traded at the sign of ‘The Cabinet’ and kept the same name when he moved in February 1732 to premises against St Peter's church in Cornhill.

Phillips was paid £444 9s 6d for work at Badminton House, Glos. for the 3rd Duke of Beaufort, 1728–33. Part of the bill was for two frames ‘richly carv'd & Guilt in Burnish'd Gold’ and endorsed ‘The R. Hon. the Lady Scudamore's Bill’. Christopher Gilbert noted a narrow walnut bureau bookcase with a small circular label giving the St Paul's Churchyard address (illus. Gilbert (1996), figs 726-727). He is also recorded as being a looking glass supplier.

Source: DEFM; Gilbert, Pictorial Dictionary of Marked London Furniture 1700-1840 (1996).