KIRKHAMFurniture-Making1982.pdf

Some also made other small items including card, glove, knife, gun and
pistol cases and cribbage, chess and backgammon boards as well as tea-chests
and caddies 57 . The term fancy was not applied to cabinet small-work
until about 1820 and the latter term continued to be used throughout the
nineteenth century 58 . IFancy implied novelty, as in the reference in the
1808 chair-makers' piece-rate book to 'the great variety which fancy is
ever crowding into this branch of manufacture' 59 . It also referred to
the use of 'fancy' or highly figured woods which were widely used for
cabinet small-work.
Cabinet small-work began to emerge as a process separate from
cabinet-making in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century.
Case-making developed as a specialisation as certain cabinet-makers
concentrated on the production of small items. John Folgham, for instance,
who ran a cabinet- and case-making firm in the 1780s, specialised in small
ware such as medal and knife-cases, illustrating the latter on his bill
headings 60 . Thomas Sheraton illustrated knife-cases in his Drawing Book
of 1793 and commented that 'these cases are not made in regular cabinet
shops, citing John Lane of 44 St. ['lartins-le-Grand as someone who
specialised in this type of cabinet small-work 61 . Sheraton, however,
showed other small items but made no reference to these being produced by
specialist craftsmen62.
Within the next few years, the distinction between the cabinet-
maker and the cabinet small-worker increased. Thomas Handford, of 94 The
Strand, was recorded as a writing-desk-maker in 1802-4 and, in the latter
63
year, as a portable desk-maker • The publication in 1806 of The Portable
Desk-('laker and Cabinet Small-Workers' London Book of Prices 64 indicates
that there was a sufficient number of small-workers such as Handford to
warrant their own piece-rate book, independent of that of the cabinet-makers