Maker/Retailer Biography

Jackson & Graham

Dates: c. 1840-1885

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Cabinet-makers in Oxford Street, London, probably the most important High Victorian cabinet-making firm. Strong French connections in the 1850s led to the employment of French designers and craftsmen and to the manufacture of elaborate and expensive pieces in an opulent interpretation of French eighteenth-century royal taste. The firm expanded rapidly, with a team of 250 employees in 1855, which grew to 600 by 1875. It was responsible for supplying furniture and decoration to Owen Jones's designs for Alfred Morrison in the early 1860s; Jones also designed a range of carpets, curtains, wallpapers (printed by Jeffrey & Co.) and other furnishings, which were manufactured exclusively for the firm. Jackson & Graham had won many prizes at international exhibitions, and the change to British reformed design was a radical departure. Jones and B.J. Talbert provided the most striking of the firm's exhibits for the Paris exhibitions in 1867 and 1878 respectively and Jones for the 1873 Exhibition in Vienna. Resident designers included Peter Graham, Alfred Lorimer and Eugene Prinot, but they also made designs by R.W. Edis and C.L. Eastlake as well as Talbert. After a financially troubled period the firm was absorbed by Collinson & Lock in 1885. Graham went on to establish a decorating company, Graham & Banks, in Oxford Street.