Wilmott, Thomas

16 John Street, Oxford Street, London; cabinet maker and upholder (fl. 1800–39)

The business was already trading by April 1800 when he advertised a number of items of patent furniture, a line in which he took a particular interest in common with a number of his contemporaries. He offered ‘SOFA and CHAIR BEDS on an Improved principle, with a new-invented Brass Hinge’ and also ‘improved Dining-Tables which will form four different Tables in one minute and dine from 4 to 20 persons conveniently’ [Times, 2 April 1800].

From its commencement the business was a substantial size and in March 1801 insurance cover was £2,050 of which £1,300 was for utensils and stock. No fewer than three insurance policies were taken out in 1804 and these refer to a store at 13 John Street and further stock and utensils at ‘the Globe’ as well as his household goods at a dwelling house at 6 Crescent, Minories [London Metropolitan Archive (LMA), Sun MS vol. 419, ref. 715599, vol. 431, refs 760755, 764394, 769093].

He was included by Thomas Sheraton in the list of master cabinet makers appended to his Cabinet Dictionary, 1803.

Wilmott may have had an export trade to Scandinavia for a set of chairs at the Palace of Tullgarn in Sweden bear his trade label. These are of a common type with an X-form back below the cresting board and turned front legs.

Wilmott adopted a policy of labelling his output and a number of items have been noted bearing his trade label. These include a reading and writing table, a sofa table, a drum table, a music Canterbury, and a birchwood chair. Several of these, a label and a dressing table glass are illustrated in Gilbert (1996), figs 1007-1011. 

Source: DEFM; Gilbert, Pictorial Dictionary of Marked London Furniture 1700-1840 (1996).