Key furniture designers and makers represented in the furniture collections at the V&A.
George Brookshaw
George Brookshaw was apprenticed in his youth to Samuel Troughton, a Birmingham painter and ‘japanner’, George ran away in 1767. Nothing else is known of these formative ye…
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Thomas Chippendale
Thomas Chippendale was one of the most eminent cabinet-makers of the 18th century. From his workshop on St Martins Lane, London, Chippendale undertook many large-scale furn…
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Eileen Gray
Eileen Gray was born into an aristocratic Irish family. Aged 20, she enrolled at the Slade School of Art in London. Gray moved to Paris in 1902, where she was to spend most…
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David Kirkness
David Kirkness trained as a joiner in Orkney. In the 1870s he set up a joinery workshop which made Orkney chairs as a sideline. Twenty years later, the demand from a fashio…
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Abraham and David Roentgen
Abraham Roentgen learned cabinet-making from his father, then worked in the Netherlands and for various London masters. He was regarded as an expert in metal inlay.
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Thonet and Sons
Michael Thonet (1796–1871) was born in Boppard am Rhein, Prussia, and trained as a traditional cabinet-maker. In the 1830s, as an alternative to the laborious technique of …
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Frank Lloyd Wright
Frank Lloyd Wright is widely viewed as the foremost American architect of the 20th century. He designed more than a thousand buildings during his career. An irascible perso…
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Audio: Descriptions of the Furniture Gallery's Designer and Maker Displays
Listen to online or download these audio descriptions of the Furniture Gallery's designer and maker displays.
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A gift in your will
You may not have thought of including a gift to a museum in your will, but the V&A is a charity and legacies form an important source of funding for our work. It is not just the great collectors and the wealthy who leave legacies to the V&A. Legacies of all sizes, large and small, make a real difference to what we can do and your support can help ensure that future generations enjoy the V&A as much as you have.
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Buy nowEvent - Fashionable and Functional: A History of Furniture
Fri 10 January 2014 10:30
8 WEEK SHORT COURSE: Explore the fascinating history of European furniture, using objects, resources and expertise featured in the V&A’s furniture gallery, the only gallery in the world that is devoted to a comprehensive display of
furniture from 1500 to the present day.
