Price, Henry

Christopher Street, Hatton Garden, London; cabinet maker (fl.1850-60)

An employee of Tommy Baker of Christopher Street, one of the firms used by William Morris to make furniture in the 1850s.

Among the furniture made by Price was ‘A large Cabinet about 7ft high and as long, a seat forming a bunk, with arms each end Carv. to represent Fishes, Three Cupboards The Doors with fantastic ironwork hinges, representing Birds, fishes, and Flowers Bolted on, and gilt coloured. The hinges cost 14 pounds’. Morris reputedly executed the carving himself.  The commisson of furniture for the rented rooms of William Morris & Burne-Jones in Red Lion Square, c. 1856-8, also included tables, a large table on trestles, high-backed chairs with painted leather backs decorated by Morris & Rossetti. The chairs are now at the Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington, USA. A large round table, of a similar date and which closely stylistically resembles the table shown in Burne-Jones's sketch of the Red Lion Square interior, was described by Rossetti 'as firm, and as heavy, as a rock', was photographed in May Morris' Hammersmith home in 1923, subsequently furnished Kelmscott Village Hall and is now at the Wilson Art Gallery & Museum, Cheltenham (1982.1114). 

Price was also possibly the maker of The Prioress's Tale wardrobe, c.1858-60, to Philip Webb's designs as a wedding present to William & Jane Morris from Edward Burne-Jones and used in the master bedroom at Red House and later in the drawing room at Kelmscott House, Hammersmith (now at Ashmolean Museum, WA1939.2).

Sources: Ellwood, ‘Three Tables by Philip Webb’, Furniture History (1996); ed. Mason, William Morris (2021).