ATTRIBUTED TO CHARLES BEVAN (1815-1891) FOR MARSH & JONES, LEEDS
OCCASIONAL TABLE, CIRCA 1870
walnut, with marquetry inlay
45.5cm diameter, 68.5cm high 
Note: The firm of Marsh and Jones was founded in 1864 when John Marsh and Edward Jones acquired the upholstery and cabinet making business of John Kendall and Co., 10 West Bar, Leeds. Kendall and Co. was a well-established business and had exhibited furniture at major exhibitions from 1850 onwards. In the early 1860s they had collaborated on work with the London firm of C.Seddon and Co. whose leading designer was John Pollard Seddon (1827-1906), the great-great-grandson of the firm's founder, George Seddon. A sideboard designed by J.P Seddon and illustrated in J.Cooper, Victorian and Edwardian Interiors, London 1987, pl. 191, was made by the two firms in partnership and bears certain similarities to the above lot.The design of the 'Geometric Gothic' furniture manufacture by Marsh and Jones is usually ascribed to Charles Bevan on the basis of the renowned bedroom suite (now at Lotherton Hall) supplied by the firm to Titus Salt Jnr. in 1865. The Building News of 1 March 1867 illustrated Bevan's design for a concert grand piano and describes 'the whole of Mr Titus Salt's furniture' as being designed by Bevan. Research has supported the fact that it may be that the characteristic features of the furniture traditionally attributed to Bevan are in fact features more specific to the firm and it has been suggested that Bevan may have trained under John Seddon and C. Seddon and Co. It seems likely that Marsh and Jones may have continued the link with Seddon and Co, and were possibly utilising the designs of John Seddon. Later the designer Bruce Talbert who was trained under John Seddon certainly went on to work independently as a designer for Marsh and Jones.