Industry and Ingenuity: The Partnership of William Ince and John Mayhew

Description

The first comprehensive study of William Ince and John Mayhew's famous eighteenth-century cabinetmaking partnership, complemented by high-quality photographs of their work. The partnership of William Ince (1737-1804) and John Mayhew (1736-1811) ran from 1758 to 1804, and was one of the most enduring and well-connected collaborations in Georgian London's tight-knit cabinetmaking community. The partners' clientele was probably larger, and their work was arguably more influential over a longer period, than most other leading metropolitan makers - perhaps even than that of their older contemporary, the celebrated Thomas Chippendale. Despite their considerable output and an impressive tally of clients and commissions, much of Ince and Mayhew's work has remained unidentified until recent times. The authors' substantial research in private family archives, county record offices and bank archives has allowed them to uncover much new evidence about the business and its influence within cabinetmaking circles. In Industry and Ingenuity, the results of these new investigations are presented alongside an impressive selection of more than 500 colourful, vibrant photographs of Ince and Mayhew's works, many previously unpublished, which together emphasise the partnership's proper position in the pantheon of great eighteenth-century cabinetmakers.

Sir Hugh Roberts, a one-time board director of the auctioneer Christie's, and Surveyor Emeritus of The Queen's Works of Art, was Director of The Royal Collection from 1996 to 2010. He is the author of For The King's Pleasure (2001) and The Queen's Diamonds (2012). Charles Cator has worked at Christie's since 1973 and is currently Deputy Chairman of Christie's International. He has contributed articles to leading furniture-making and collecting journals and is a co-author of Star Pieces (2009).

This handsome and magisterial work, the distilled harvest of forty years' research, presents a comprehensive account of the great neo-classical cabinetmaking partnership of William Ince and John Mayhew. They have indeed been accorded their rightful place alongside Chippendale, an achievement to celebrate. -- Simon Swynfen Jervis, President of the Furniture History Society This welcome and beautiful book restores Ince and Mayhew, Georgian English furniture makers, to the pantheon of leading British designers and craftsmen and retrieves them from 'historical oblivion'. * Country Life *