A great many of the older Club houses of London were built and furnished between 1813 and 1851, the Guards’ being of the earlier date, and the Army and Navy of the latter; and during the intervening thirty odd years the United Service, Travellers’, Union, United University, Athenaeum, Oriental, Wyndham, Oxford and Cambridge, Reform, Carlton, Garrick, Conservative, and some others were erected and fitted up.  Many of these still retain much of the furniture of Gillows, Seddons, and some of the other manufacturers of the time whose work has been alluded to, and these are favourable examples of the best kind of cabinet work done in England during the reign of George IV., William IV., and that of the early part of Queen Victoria.  It is worth recording, too, that during this period, steam power, which had been first applied to machinery about 1815, came into more general use in the manufacture of furniture, and with its adoption there seems to have been a gradual abandonment of the apprenticeship system in the factories and workshops of our country; and the present “piece work” arrangement, which had obtained more or less since the English cabinet makers had brought out their “Book of Prices” some years previously, became generally the custom of the trade, in place of the older “day work” of a former generation.

[Illustration:  Cradle, In Boxwood, for H.M. the Queen.  Designed and Carved by H. Rogers, London.]

In France the success of national exhibitions had become assured, the exhibitors having increased from only 110 when the first experiment was tried in 1798, by leaps and bounds, until at the eleventh exhibition, in 1849, there were 4,494 entries.  The Art Journal of that year gives us a good illustrated notice of some of the exhibits, and devotes an article to pointing out the advantages to be gained by something of the kind taking place in England.

From 1827 onwards we had established local exhibitions in Dublin, Leeds, and Manchester.  The first time a special building was devoted to exhibition of manufactures was at Birmingham in 1849; and from the illustrated review of this in the Art Journal one can see there was a desire on the part of our designers and manufacturers to strike out in new directions and make progress.

We are able to reproduce some of the designs of furniture of this period; and in the cradle, designed and carved in Turkey-boxwood, for the Queen, by Mr. Harry Rogers, we have a fine piece of work, which would not have disgraced the latter period of the Renaissance.  Indeed, Mr. Rogers was a very notable designer and carver of this time; he had introduced his famous boxwood carvings about seven years previously.

[Illustration:  Design for a Tea Caddy, By J. Strudwick, for Inlaying and Ivory.  Published as one of the “Original Designs for Manufacturers” in Art Journal, 1829.]