Edward William Godwin (1883-1886) for Collinson and Lock.

An Anglo-Japanese eight leg Walnut side cabinet, with dentil moulded cornice above a glazed three door cabinet, the base breaking forward with open cupboards and open shelves below, stood on eight legs with tram line details terminating on brass sabots, stamped 'Collinson and Lock 7245'.

A design with much thought and consideration encompassing his hygienic approach to furniture design and incorporating many similar details to his most famous Anglo-Japanese cabinets with open voids and spaces.

(See Soros, Susan Weber 'The Secular Furniture of E.W. Godwin', p. 176 to 183).

The eight tapering legs all with brass shoes are quite unique to Godwin in the UK at the time. The back legs are designed an inch forward to compensate for skirting boards allowing it to fit tight against a wall, the top set slightly back to a three-door display area to the top with adjustable shelf. The tramline scribed detail to the side and fronts of the legs and the cornice with dentil moulding are identical to the famous butterfly fireplace painted by James McNeil whistler and exhibited in the Paris exhibition of 1878.

See Soros p. 369. See also Christie's, London 'Important 20th century design', 26th May 2005, sale no.7130, lot 50.

Collinson and Lock of London 'Art Furnishers', founded with the partnership of F.G. Collinson and G.J. Lock, former employees of Jackson and Graham. Designers employed by the firm included T.E. Collcutt, the architect of their premises; E.W. Godwin, who was paid a retainer to produce exclusive designs for the company from 1872 to 1874, H.W. Batley and Stephen Webb. They made furniture for the new Law Courts to designs by G.E. Street, along with Gillows and Holland and Sons, and began decoration of the Savoy Theatre in 1881. Jackson and Graham was taken over in 1885, at the time when the firm had moved to Oxford Street and begun to focus on expensive commissions for grandiose London houses. The firm was taken over by Gillows in 1897. The firm of Collinson and Lock was established in London in the third quarter of the 19th century and quickly achieved both commercial success and a leading position in the field of design. In 1871 the firm issued an impressive illustrated catalogue of 'Artistic furniture', with plates by J. Moyar Smith, assistant to Christopher Dresser, and in 1873 was trading from extensive newly built premises in St Bride Street. The firm continued to produce very high quality items of furniture and soon began to experiment with new materials and designs, becoming especially renowned for their distinctive combinations of rosewood and ivory and their intricate Italianate arabesques, traditional figures and scrolling foliage. This form of decoration clearly points toward the involvement of Stephen Webb, Collinson and Locks chief designer who was later appointed Professor of Sculpture at the Royal College of Art.

E.W.Godwin was their most important designer and so advanced were his designs in the Japanese style.