Stafford, John and successors

Bath, Somerset; upholders and cabinet maker (fl.1787–c.1863)

The Bath section of the 1787 Bristol Directory lists ‘Stafford, John, Broker, Market Place’ and ‘Stafford, William, Upholder, High-street’. The 1792 New Bath Directory lists ‘Stafford, John, Upholder, Appraiser & Auctioneer, High-street’. Billinge's Liverpool Advertiser, 19 February 1798, lists among bankrupts ‘John Stafford, Bath, Upholder, Feb. 27, 28, March, 20, White Lion, Bath, Mr Clarke, Bath’. Robbin's Bath Directory, 1800, has ‘Stafford, John, Upholsterer and Auctioneer, Market-place’. In 1802 the Gents Mag. (LXXII, p. 688) listed the death of ‘Mr John Stafford, of Bath, upholder’. In 1805, however, the New Bath Directory lists ‘Stafford, Mr., 11, Westgate buildings’ and in 1812 it has entries for ‘Stafford, J., Cabinet-maker and Auctioneer, 12 Westgate-buildings’, and for ‘Stafford, John, Cabinet-maker and Auctioneer, 8 Westgate-street’ This John Stafford was probably the son or nephew of the John who died in 1802. In 1816, John Stafford published A Series of Designs for Interior Decorations Comprehending Draperies and Elegancies for the Drawing-Room (18 coloured plates, designed and drawn by Stafford and engraved by W. Smart, Warren St, Fitzroy Sq., London). In a copious preface Stafford mentioned his own apprenticeship to an unnamed provincial u and claimed to have executed most of the designs ‘within the period of the last two years’; he also alluded to the superiority of French taste and bemoaned the lack of design education in England. A Series of Designs was published in London by James Barron ‘Upholsterers’ Brass Founder’ who also had premises in Birmingham: the work was also available at Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme & Brown in London and ‘at the author's upholstery warehouse, No. 20 Milsom Street, Bath’. Milsom St was then the finest trading street in the city. The dedication is worth quoting in full: ‘To Thomas Hope, Esq. Whose Pure Taste and Classical Erudition have so eminently contributed to swell the tide of national benefaction; whose conspicuous researches into the mystic treasures of ancient lore, have rendered The Graces of Grecian Art subservient to the pleasures of domestic life, and directed his countrymen, by better paths, to the distant dome of Attic elegance; the following designs are respectfully inscribed’. Stafford's designs depict window curtains and pelmets; one commemorates the ‘memorable epoch of 1814’ in homage to Wellington. The designs are followed by an ‘Index’ (6 pp.) with detailed technical notes and descriptions. The only known copy of A Series of Designs is in the V&A Lib. Twelve of the designs were reprinted on a smaller scale in Ackermann's Repository of Arts from March 1819 to July 1820: Stafford was there described as ‘an eminent upholsterer of Bath’. The designs not reprinted are nos 2, 6, 7, 10, 11, and 15. In 1823 the Stafford plates from the Repository were reprinted in Ackermann's Fashionable Furniture (pls 3–5, 8– 16), which was later reissued by M. Nattali as Modern Furniture. The introduction stated: ‘It will be perceived on inspection that the present series is rich in window-draperies, for which it is chiefly indebted to the acknowledged abilities of Mr Stafford, of Bath, whose exertions to ennoble the science of domestic embellishment deserve the highest commendation: especially as that difficult and important branch of the upholstery art, drapery in general, requires the talents of the draughtsman, combined with professional experience and taste’. In Gye's Bath Directory for 1819 is ‘Stafford, J, Upholder and auctioneer, 20 Milsom St.’. Stafford continued to be listed at this address (Keenes’ Improved Bath Directory, 1824, Keenes’ Bath Directory, 1826 and 1829, ‘as auctioneer, appraiser, upholsterer, house-agent, and undertaker’. On 11 December 1828 he advertised in the Bath Chronicle that he had for auction a ‘small choice of stock of cabinet and upholstery furniture and effects of household decoration, exonerated from Excise Duty, being the stock in trade of Messrs English and Becks’. He is listed in Pigot's National Directory from1830 until 1833 when the entry in Silverthorne's Bath Directory changes the title of the business to ‘Stafford and Son, Messrs. John’. It is changed again in Silverthorne's Bath Directory of 1837 to ‘Stafford, Thomas & Son’: this directory also includes an entry for ‘Stafford, William, of Stafford & Son, 27 Richmond Place’. In 1849 he moved from Milsom Street, to George Street, Bath where in 1850 he was succeeded by James Bryer. However, he continued his business as auctioneer and appraiser from his private address at 8 Miles’s Buildings. After 1854 he seems to have retired and the last mention is in the 1862 to1863 Bath Director when he would have been about 80. He probably died in around 1863.

Source: DEFM; Jervis, ‘John Stafford of Bath and his Interior Decorations’, Furniture History (2009).