Porter, Thomas, London, upholder and cm (1749–68). Son of Thomas Porter of St James, Clerkenwell, Gent. App. to Daniel Woodroffe on 2 January 1739 and free of the Upholders’ Co. by servitude, 23 May 1749. His trade card [Heal Coll., BM and Landauer Coll., MMA, NY] gives an address at ‘The King's Arms’, New Round Ct, Strand, and states that he appraised goods and performed funerals. The style of the chair and pole screen illustrated and the general Rococo character of the frame would suggest that the card probably dates from the 1750s or 60s. It also bears an engraving of the Royal coat of arms, but the significance of this is unclear. From the Strand address he appears to have moved to a property at St Alban's St, Pall Mall, a house held on a Crown lease of fifty years at a rental of £2.50 per annum. In 1768 he announced his intention to quit ‘Shop-keeping’ and his stock was auctioned by James Christie. Apart from the usual cabinet and upholstery lines it also included ‘Useful and Ornamental China, Fire Arma, Plated, Japanned and Pontepool Goods, Marble, Stone and Plaster Busts and Vases, an Eight-day Chime-Clock, a table ditto and Variety of Cutlery and other Articles’. The catalogue lists papier mâché items, ‘India dressing boxes’, Nankeen ’basons’, shagreened knife cases and tortoiseshell items. Porter's new address was given as the corner of Charles St, near Parliament St, Westminster. The only known patron of Thomas Porter is the 4th Duke of Bedford who, between February 1761 and the following year, purchased a number of modest items of furniture which included ‘slatt back chairs with matt seats’, a wainscot desk and bookcase and a walnut chair. [GL, Upholders’ Co. records; Christie's, 14 December 1768; Bedford Office, London]