Shoolbred & Co Walnut Hall Cupboard

A late Victorian walnut hall cupboard and stick stand by Jas Shoolbred & Co of London. It is of excellent construction in solid walnut with attractive walnut veneers. The cupboard has a pair of drawers over a pair of cupboard doors, all fitted with original solid brass drop pendant handles. The cupboards open to reveal shelved interiors. The cupboards are flanked by a pair of stick stands complete with original drip trays. To the top is an upstand with mirror back. Offered for sale in excellent original condition, with a good colour and patina, ready to go straight into the home. James Shoolbred & Co The name of James Shoolbred & Co is highly respected among admirers of Aesthetic Movement furniture. Their antique desks, Victorian dining chairs and antique marquetry furniture were produced for wealthy households up to 1931. A particularly fine example of James Shoolbred antique marquetry furniture – an ornate piano by designer Henry Batley – is on display at the V & A museum, London. Established in the 1820s, James Shoolbred’s Tottenham Court Road company began life as a drapers. It began supplying textiles to the furniture trade, and expanded into the stores either side, branching into interior design. By the 1870s, the company was designing and manufacturing its own furniture. A major factor of James Shoolbred’s success was their detailed catalogues, which were published from around 1873. Configured to showcase the company’s designs beyond the confines of London, they made Shoolbred an overnight success. In the 1880s the firm moved to larger premises. Imaginatively laid out, with detailed room schemes showing off the company’s latest furniture and textile designs, it became an unmitigated success. Although James Shoolbred & Co specialised in furniture of the Aesthetic Movement they encompassed all the fashionable trends of the time, from the motifs and patterns of Japanese design in their antique marquetry furniture, to Art Nouveau and gothic influences in their antique desks and Victorian dining chairs.