KIRKHAMFurniture-Making1982.pdf

in general use by the end of the seventeenth century, by which time there
was a distinct division of labour between joiner and cabinet-maker in London.
The cabinet-maker needed t a much lighter hand and a quicker eye
than the joiners and was 'the most curious workman in the wood way, except
the Though somewhat laborious, the job required t more ingenuity
than strength'. The cabinet-maker also needed to be able to 'write a
good hand, understand arithmetic, and have some notion of drawing and
designing' 23 . By the mid-eighteenth century, when cabinet-making was
considered to have reached standards of great perfection in England 24 , the
cabinet-maker worked chiefly in mahogany and walnut and made many items of
furniture including chests-of-drawers and bookcases as well as cabinets and
25
tables
The cabinet-maker was trained to make these pieces of furniture
in their entirety. There is some evidence, however, that within two
major comprehensive furniture-making firms in the 1760s, certain parts for
tables, particularly legs and feet, were made separately from the rest.
This raises the question of whether or not all the parts for each particular
table were made by the same craftsman. Rn inventory taken in 1760 of the
stock of Paul Saunders included '10 setts of mahogany table feet ... 25
mahogany feet for breakfast tables ... 30 wainscot table feet ... 12 pair of
card table legs ... 6 tops for breakfast tables part while
that taken three years later of the stock of William Linnell included
'222 Ilarlborough feet for tables and chairs ... 35 table legs with turned
toes' 27 . Because the evidence comes from inventories taken during the
working life of the firms, it is possible that these items were part of
work in progress and represent the sum total of different parts made by
several craftsmen. The thirty-five table legs, for instance, could have
been made by several different craftsmen because, together, they do not
provide sufficient for nine four-legged tables. If half the 222 Marlborough
22