Fine Pair of Inlaid Mahogany Armchairs

This is a fine quality, late Victorian period pair of inlaid mahogany armchairs by John Finch & Co of London. Of excellent construction in solid mahogany and embellished throughout with profuse floral marquetry inlay in satinwood and boxwood. Comprehensively further adorned with stringing inlay in ivorine. Recently professionally repolished and re-upholstered, this stunning pair of chairs are now offered for sale in excellent condition. Finch, John; Finch & Company London; upholsterers, cabinet and chair makers (fl.1879-1905) John Finch worked as a departmental manager for Messrs. W. & J. R. Hunter. On their retirement in 1879 he opened his own business at 45 City Road. An article in The Furniture Gazette on 5 July 1879 said the new establishment would operate on a cash basis and the furniture would be designed by W. Fairbanks for ‘guaranteed good, artistic style’. They participated in the 2nd Furniture Trades Exhibitions, Agricultural Hall, 1882 [The Furniture Gazette, 25 March 1882] and at the 3rd Furniture Exhibition, 1883, where their display included a ‘Jacobean’ walnut sideboard and a Queen Anne style walnut buffet [The Furniture Gazette, 13 May 1882]. Finch was recorded as the maker of a sideboard in ‘mahogany and gun metal’, designed by Reginald Blomfield which he exhibited at the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society, 1889 (cat. no. 174) (illus. Denny, Furniture History (2003), fig. 6). The Furniture Gazette, 15 December 1889, described the sideboard as of a ‘simple and graceful outline .… and the novel idea of the candlestick supported on shaped brackets is well worth attention’. The Arts & Crafts Exhibition, 1890 included a mahogany corner cupboard inlaid with snakewood and ebony executed by John Finch, also designed and exhibited by Blomfield (cat. no. 311). London Post Office Directories list John Finch/John Finch & Co./Finch & Co. at 45 City Road until 1890, then at 20 City Road with a factory at 3 Oliver's Yard, Finsbury, 1891, 1895 & 1900; and only at 20 City Road, 1905. Sources: Denny, ‘Quaint Furniture’, Furniture History (2003); Arts & Crafts Exhibition catalogues, 1888-1916.