George Simson’s Trade Label

This label appeared on many of George Simson’s furniture designs throughout the late 1700’s and early 1800’s. According to British and Irish Furniture Makers Online, much of Simson’s furniture is “known from pieces marked with his trade label,” which reads, “George Simson, Upholder, Cabinet Maker & Undertaker” and shows the location of Simson's workshop at “No. 19 South Side of St. Paul’s Church Yard, London.” George Simson’s surname is listed as “Simpson” in some sources and his business’s name appears as “Simpson and Son”  between 1837 and 1839, suggesting that he was assisted by his son during the later years of  his career.

Page from Sheraton’s Drawing Book

In 1793, George Simson subscribed to Sheraton’s Drawing Book, a pattern book for furniture makers which was published in forty two installments between 1791 and 1793. This image shows plate 28 from the publication’s second volume, which depicts a design for “a secretary and bookcase.” Simson was likely influenced by many furniture pieces he saw depicted within its pages, such as this “secretary and bookcase” design, which resembles the silhouette and construction of the Weeks cabinet. In fact, in a July  2000 edition of Antiques Trade Gazette, a satinwood and mahogany secretaire bookcase equipped with a barrel organ and attributed to George Simson (identical to Raby’s Thomas Weeks cabinet) is described as having been “influenced by designs in Sheraton’s Cabinet Maker publication of 1793”.