Maker/Retailer Biography

Gillow

Dates: 1729-1900

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Decorators, cabinet-makers and upholsterers, founded by Robert Gillow of Lancaster. London premises were opened in Oxford Street in 1769. After Robert Gillow's death in 1772 his son Richard ran the Lancaster branch, and his son Robert (junior) the London branch. The firm was celebrated in the early nineteenth century for innovative furniture, for example the davenport, introduced c.1816. The firm's stamp was used from the 1780s and very full records exist of its activities throughout the nineteenth century until the amalgamation with Waring in 1900. Although the Gillow family connection came to an end in 1830 the firm continued and flourished, with many prize-winning pieces at international exhibitions. Furniture was made for the New Palace of Westminster to Pugin's designs, for the New Law Courts to Street's designs, for the Midland Grand Hotel and St Pancras railway station to designs by T. G. Jackson and G. Gilbert Scott, and for the Marquess of Bute, to Burges's designs. Architect-designers employed by the firm include B.J. Talbert and E. W. Godwin as well as a number of in house and professional designers: C.J. Henry, J. W. Hay, H. Noble, E. Tarver, C. Bevan and possibly J. P. Seddon. Gillow's exhibited at Paris in 1855, 1867 and 1878; London in 1851, 1862, 1871 and 1873; and Vienna in 1873. The firm absorbed Collinson & Lock in 1897.