Free Queen's House by Edna Healey

whether strutting magnificently through his workshops, giving orders to his men, or on some errand at the ‘Queen’s House’, where the King who smiled at his pomposity frequently employed him for cabinet work of an elaborate and expensive sort.
    Cobb himself became immensely wealthy, living in some great state himself. When Nathaniel Dance painted his picture he nobly sent the painter home in his own carriage.
    Smith records an occasion in
    His Majesty’s library at the Queen’s House when giving orders to a workman whose ladder chanced to stand before a book required by the King, His Majesty desired Cobb to hand him the work. Instead of obeying, Cobb called to his man, ‘fellow, give me that book!’ The King with his usual condescension rose and asked Cobb for his man’s name. ‘Jenkins, your Majesty,’ answered the astonished upholsterer. ‘Then,’ observed the King, ‘Jenkins. You shall hand me that book.’ 10
    William Vile, a cabinetmaker of distinction, had worked for Horace Walpole in his remarkable house at Strawberry Hill. The King gave large orders to Vile & Cobb in the years 1760–4 and their workshop at 72 St Martin’s Lane must have been extremely busy. The street was much frequented by artists and wealthy patrons – Thomas Coutts, the King’s banker, had a house there at this time. William Vile supplied to the Queen music desks and ‘a very handsome jewel cabinet’ for £138 10s. at the beginning of her reign in 1761, ‘mahogony [sic] stands for birdcages, 2 mahogony houses for a Turkey monkey’.
    It was William Vile to whom was entrusted the delicate work in ‘the conversion of the late Japan room into the new Japan room’. This entailed removing the black and gold ‘japanned’ panels from the Duke of Buckingham’s Saloon and refitting them in the Queen’s Breakfast Room; and making a ‘quantity of new Japan to make out the new’. William Vile was succeeded by the equally distinguished cabinetmaker, John Bradburn, who provided delicate and elegant furniture for the Queen’s House between 1764 and 1767.
    Most tantalizing are the references to Mrs Naish, joiner, who apparently not only carved the most elaborate bedsteads, but could also turn out square boxes for beds for Queen Charlotte’s little dogs and innumerable commodes for all the palaces. Mrs Naish was the daughter of the joiner Henry Williams, who had worked for the King’s father, Frederick, Prince of Wales. We know that she was given many commissions.
    Some of the Queen’s most elaborate furniture was made by Eastern craftsmen. Mrs Warren Hastings gave her a carved ivory sofa with a canopy of white satin.
    Many craftswomen stitched away during these years of refurbishmentat the Palace. Mrs Priscilla MacEwan, presumably a Scot, was paid the immense sums of £3,778 14s. as well as £225 18s. 6d. for feathers. Queen Charlotte, herself an accomplished needlewoman, became the patroness of the ‘Royal School of embroidering females’, where poor girls learned embroidery. There was also a lacewoman for Flanders point lace’ 11 .
    Not since Charles II, who encouraged men like Grinling Gibbons, had a king and queen taken such an interest in the work of craftsmen and women. In George Ill’s reign traditions were established that were carried on by families of craftsmen for generations. The Crace firm, for example, was founded in 1768 by Edward Crace, who worked for George III in many capacities. Son of coachmaker John Crace, Edward Crace was apprenticed to an artist and ‘set up his business’ as a decorative house painter to the nobility and gentry. The most famous example of his work in this field was in 1770 on the spectacular interior of the Pantheon in Oxford Street. George III had been much impressed by the decoration of the Pantheon and also by the obvious quality of Edward Crace’s work.