Phillips, John,

London, upholder (1774–1812) 

His father who was a farmer lived at Glaesbury, Radnor, Wales. John Phillips was app. to Philip Morgan, spectacle maker, 13 February 1767 and was declared free of the Upholders’ Company by servitude, 5 October 1774. He was established at 55 Fenchurch St by 1776 when he took out insurance cover of £800 of which £700 was for utensils and stock. By the following year the total cover had risen to £1,000 and utensils and stock to £850, a substantial sum for a business still in its early years. From 1781 he used for trading purposes an address at 134 Fenchurch St but appears to have retained no. 55 at which he was shown living as late as 1802. Addresses at Cross St, Rathbone Pl. in 1781 and Sunday St, Bishopsgate St in 1783 are recorded but these may have been dwelling houses occupied on a short time basis. Took as apps Thomas Horner 1774–81, Hughes Howell 1775–79, George Redshaw 1776–83, James Flower 1778 and James Herring 1787–94. The business was described on his trade card [Heal Coll. BM] as a ‘Carpet, Upholstery, Cabinet and Paper Hanging Warehouse’, and items held in stock included ‘all sorts of Furniture, Bedsteads, Bedding &c., Turkey, Persia, Wilton, Kidderminster & Scotch Carpets’. He stated that he was also an ‘Exchange Broker, Appraiser and Auctioneer’. In 1802 he was involved in a Chancery action concerning land in Brecknockshire, South Wales.

Phillips described himself as ‘Upholder to the Honble City of London’ and in 1780 provided a fine carved and gilt armchair of state incorporating the City arms for the Lord Mayor at a cost of £80. In that year the Lord Mayor was Sir Watkin Lewes. [GL, Upholders’ Co. records; Sun MS vol. 249, p. 404; vol. 259, p. 196; PRO, C13 360; Conn., December 1952, p. 181]. A labelled mahogany secretaire press, c. 1780, is recorded (illus. Gilbert (1996), fig. 727, sold Sotheby’s 13 Nov 1987, lot 84).

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