Fine William IV Period Rosewood Library Table by George Simson and Son of St Paul’s Churchyard, London, c.1837

The finely shaped rectangular top with rounded corners, supported on a plain frieze with inset cockbeaded drawers. Supported upon twin end supports with foliate carved columns and leafy bases. The rosewood utilised throughout of the highest quality colour and figure.

Aside from its obvious desirability based on the quality of construction and timbers used, this table provides a fascinating insight in to the activities of George Simson, the well known St Paul’s Churchyard cabinetmaker, towards the end of his long career. Unlike most English makers of the period, a surprising number of pieces of furniture with Simson’s label on them are known to survive. Many of these pieces are illustrated in Christopher Gilbert’s Pictorial Dictionary of Marked London Furniture and, according to this source and others cited on BIFMO, there are two known Simson variant labels. Our piece would appear to be the first documented example of a piece of furniture with the Simson and Son label as opposed to Simson alone. Evidence suggests that the firm operated as Simson and Son from c.1835 until the closure of the business in 1839 and given the stylistic features of this piece it is likely that our table dates to c.1837-39. This piece is a highly significant discovery.

George Simson

Born the son of a Kentish surgeon and apothecary, Simson was apprenticed in 1772 and free of the Upholder’s Company in 1780. He is known to have been based at his 19 St Paul’s Churchyard address from at least 1787 and continued in business at the same premises until the closure of the firm in 1839. 

Simson was one of the subscribers to Thomas Sheraton’s Drawing Book of 1793 and was included by Sheraton in his list of master cabinetmakers published in his Cabinet Dictionary in 1803. Insurance records show that Simson clearly had an extremely large business but sadly little is known of his clientele. Surviving payments indicate that he supplied substantial amounts of furniture and upholstery to Gorhambury House in Hertfordshire and the 2nd Viscount Palmerston was also a customer, probably in conjunction with his refurbishment of Broadlands in Hampshire. Another interesting aspect of Simson’s business is that it has been suggested that he was the maker of the fine series of secretaire cabinets, some with clock movements in the pediments, that were retailed by the Thomas Weeks Museum in Tichborne Street in the regency period. Examples of these Weeks cabinets survive in numerous museum and private collections including at Temple Newsam in Leeds.

Simson died aged 83 in 1840, a year after closing his business. He was clearly an enterprising maker who enjoyed significant success over a prolonged period and the quality of his pieces was high, as demonstrated by the present piece.