Smith, Samuel

‘The Inigo Jones Head’, Compton Ct, Compton St, Soho, London: cabinet maker and upholsterer (fl.1743–d. by 1771).

A Fellow of the Society for Arts and Manufactures 1761–65. Dead by 1771 when his remaining stock was sold by auction by Mr Christie at his Great Room, Pall Mall commencing 4 April. He attracted a number of important patrons. The Earl of Dumfries placed orders with him in 1756 totalling £13 17s. The work involved mending and cleaning tapestries and supplying two tables. A ‘neat mahog frett Rim tea table’ was charged at £1 1s and a ‘mahogany nettwood Breakfast Table with a draw to ditto’ £3 3s. The latter survives and closely resembles pl. xxxiii of Chippendale's Director, 1754.

Smith was considered for other furniture and on 25 August 1757 wrote to the Earl enclosing two sketches ‘of Glass frames’ which he estimated to cost on completion £25 each. He also mentions in this letter designs for chairs and some table tops that the Earl had ordered. Smith hoped to obtain firm orders when the Earl visited London, but the visit was postponed until 1758–59 and by this date it had been decided to place the orders with Chippendale & Rannie. Another Scottish client was Sir James Dalrymple of Newhailes, for whom he made a ‘large mohogoney Library table’ in 1743 costing £15. The table survives at Newhailes. A bill for £8 for unspecified work survives in the Duchess of Montrose’s accounts [SRO, GD220/6/897/100] and Smith also supplied campaign furniture to the Earl of Dalhousie [SRO, GD45/2/69]. Smith's name also appears in the account book of Sir Robert Burdett of Foremark Hall, Derbs., and a payment of £6 15s was made on 30 January 1768. [D; Daily Advertiser, 26 March 1744; Westminster poll bk; Dumfries House papers, DH34/51, DH34/63; Burlington, November 1969, p. 664; Berks. RO, D/EBU A8/1]

Sources: DEFM; Pryke, ‘The Eighteenth-Century Furniture Trade in Edinburgh’, PhD thesis, St Andrews (1995), pp.108-9.