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Robson & Son (1876-1900)

Robson & Son(s)

34 Northumberland Street, Newcastle-upon-Tyne; furniture makers (fl.1876-1900)

Robson & Son was listed in The Furniture Gazette Directory, 1876 and became reputedly ‘the largest and most complete house furnishers in the North of England’.

Robson and Sons most celebrated commission was probably the furniture and upholstery they supplied to the Bishop of Newcastle, for a suite of 4 reception room: a hall, an anteroom, a library and a dining room, presented by the See at a meeting of the Benwell Fund Furnishing Fund subscribers. The hall furniture comprised a large armoire or press, two corner presses, centre table, six chairs and a bench with box, all made in oak. The anteroom furniture, made of mahogany, included a cabinet of French Renaissance style, a centre table, a cylinder front ladies writing desk and a suite of chairs upholstered in velvet. For the library, the furniture was designed with a view to the room being used as the Bishop’s study and the walls were covered bookcases and panelling concealing compartments, drawers etc. Also a writing desk, a large table with sliding flaps, a sofa, 10 easy armchairs, 2 writing chairs and a reading chair; all made in oak and upholstered in leather. The dining room furniture comprised a sideboard with the arms of the See, a similar dinner waggon and armchairs carved with a bishop’s mitre, carving table, telescope dining table 18’ long.  An armchair, mahogany with a brass inlay and upholstered in velvet, and a dining chair, carved oak, upholstered in leather, both for the Bishopric of Newcastle [The Furniture Gazette, 23 December 1882; illustrated in Aslin (1962), pls 100 & 101].  

Robson & Son were also makers of a sideboard cabinet inlaid with tulips, sinuous foliage and ‘whip-lash’ roots, c.1900 (illus. Agius (1978), p.140).

The Furniture Gazette recorded various commissions including furniture for the new offices & boardroom, South Shields Gas Company [1 November 1885] and a screen for the Roman Catholic Church at Bradford [1 November 1888].

According to The Furniture Gazette they were still at 34 Northumberland Street, Newcastle-upon-Tyne in 1886 [The Furniture Gazette: Classified List of the Furniture, Upholstery, and Allied Trades, 1886]. However, 47 Northumberland Street was listed in other sources around this date and by 1886 the firm had the telegraphic address of ‘Spital, Newcastle-on-Tyne’ [The Furniture Gazette, 1 March 1886].

Robson’s also reputedly bought in furniture from Harry Lebus.

The firm exhibited at the Newcastle Royal Jubilee Exhibition [The Furniture Gazette, 1 June 1887].

Sources: Aslin, 19th Century English Furniture (1962); Agius, British Furniture 1880-1915 (1978).