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KIRKHAMFurniture-Making1982.pdf

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classified as 'good buhl cutters's who could design as well as cut their<br />

own patterns and there were none elsewhere in the country. In contrast<br />

to this small 6lite, there were about 100 less skilled workers ' ° 1 . Buh].<br />

furniture continued to be produced by these craftsmen until about 1870.<br />

In 1876, however, it was noted that, although it was still produced by<br />

certain French firms, it was 'no longer a regular trade in this country'102.<br />

clock-case-making<br />

R. W. Symonds claimed that clock-case-making was a craft distinct from<br />

cabinet-making in the eighteenth century 103 but this has been challenged<br />

on the grounds that cabinet-makers in the Lancaster firm of Gillow made<br />

clock-cases 104 . The evidence concerning London, where the division of<br />

labour was more marked than in the provinces 105 , however, is more<br />

problematic. Trade guides do not discuss clock-case-making nor do they<br />

include it in the jobs ascribed to cabinet-makers. There was some<br />

specialisation from mid-century: two clock-case-makers were members of<br />

the Livery of the Joiners' Company 106 . Clock-case-makers are also recorded<br />

in the Inland Revenue apprenticeship records from the 1780s but the question<br />

of whether London cabinet-makers made clock-cases in the years before about<br />

1788 remains open. It seems unlikely that they did in 1788 because their<br />

first piece-rate price book, published in that year, did not include clock-<br />

cases 107 . Nor did subsequent London books, although certain provincial<br />

books did include clock-cases108.<br />

In the nineteenth century, most clock-case-makers were centred<br />

109<br />

in the clock-making area of Clerkenwell , from whence they supplied not<br />

only clock-makers but also furniture-makers°.<br />

the East End and worked in the 'cheap' trade.<br />

Others were located in<br />

In the second half of the<br />

nineteenth century, those former cabinet-makers who worked at clock-case-<br />

making were those who, because of unemployment or other reasons, were unable

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