KIRKHAMFurniture-Making1982.pdf

classified as 'good buhl cutters's who could design as well as cut their
own patterns and there were none elsewhere in the country. In contrast
to this small 6lite, there were about 100 less skilled workers ' ° 1 . Buh].
furniture continued to be produced by these craftsmen until about 1870.
In 1876, however, it was noted that, although it was still produced by
certain French firms, it was 'no longer a regular trade in this country'102.
clock-case-making
R. W. Symonds claimed that clock-case-making was a craft distinct from
cabinet-making in the eighteenth century 103 but this has been challenged
on the grounds that cabinet-makers in the Lancaster firm of Gillow made
clock-cases 104 . The evidence concerning London, where the division of
labour was more marked than in the provinces 105 , however, is more
problematic. Trade guides do not discuss clock-case-making nor do they
include it in the jobs ascribed to cabinet-makers. There was some
specialisation from mid-century: two clock-case-makers were members of
the Livery of the Joiners' Company 106 . Clock-case-makers are also recorded
in the Inland Revenue apprenticeship records from the 1780s but the question
of whether London cabinet-makers made clock-cases in the years before about
1788 remains open. It seems unlikely that they did in 1788 because their
first piece-rate price book, published in that year, did not include clock-
cases 107 . Nor did subsequent London books, although certain provincial
books did include clock-cases108.
In the nineteenth century, most clock-case-makers were centred
109
in the clock-making area of Clerkenwell , from whence they supplied not
only clock-makers but also furniture-makers°.
the East End and worked in the 'cheap' trade.
Others were located in
In the second half of the
nineteenth century, those former cabinet-makers who worked at clock-case-
making were those who, because of unemployment or other reasons, were unable