White, John & Son

Chichester, Sussex; cabinet maker, upholder and auctioneer (fl. 1792–1840)

At East St, 1792–1802 where the business traded as John White. A number of pieces of furniture with trade labels attached give this address. Items include a mahogany secretaire chest, two chests of drawers (illus. Jones Regional Furniture (1993), figs 5 and 6) and two clothes presses. One of these is in mahogany and satinwood, the doors painted with oval rustic scenes and with Neo-classical sprandrel ornaments and a Gothic drip cornice. After 1804 the firm traded as John White & Son with an address at North Street, Chichester, confirmed by another chest of drawers with a revised trade label (illus. Jones, Regional Furniture (1993), fig.7). A billhead for the year 1835 is in the John Johnson Collection, Bodleian Library.

Source: DEFM; Jones, ‘An Anthology of Regional Furniture with Maker's Identification’, Regional Furniture (1993); Stabler, ‘Furniture Makers' Trade-Cards and Bill-Heads in the John Johnson Collection’, Furniture History Newsletter (May 2007).