Bruce James Talbert

Bruce James Talbert (1881).

Bruce James Talbert (1838 – 28 January 1881) was a Scottish architect, interior designer and author, best known for his furniture designs.

He moved to London in 1866 to design furniture for Holland & Sons. The following year his Reformed Gothic furniture won a silver medal at the 1867 Paris Exhibition.^[1] In 1868 he was a designer for Gillows of Lancaster and London.

Talbert also designed metalwork, tiles, stained glass, textiles, and wallpaper.

Talbert died at age 43 of alcoholism.

In the United States, he influenced the Modern Gothic work of Kimbel and Cabus, Frank Furness, and Daniel Pabst.^[2][3]

Early years

He studied at the High School of Dundee, then under a Dundee woodcarver named Millar. In Glasgow, he was apprenticed to architect Charles Edward (ca. 1855-57), worked as an assistant to architect William Nairne Tait (1857–60), and as a draftsman for architect Campbell Douglas (1860–62). He moved to Manchester in 1862 to design furniture for Doveston, Bird & Hull; but later that year was hired by Francis Skidmore at Art Manufactures in Coventry.^[4] At Art Manufactures he did drafting work on Sir George Gilbert Scott's Hereford Screen (1862), and on Scott's Albert Memorial (designed 1863, completed 1872).

Gillows of Lancaster

During the 1860s and 70s, Gillows employed Bruce James Talbert. The firm produced many items of furniture to Talbert's designs, including two sideboards from around 1872, on display at the Judges' Lodgings, Lancaster.^[5]

Talbert's book, Gothic Forms Applied to Furniture, Metal Work and Decoration for Domestic Purposes, proved to be influential on the commercial production of furniture. Talbert recommended framed construction, decorative inlay and low-relief carving. Another recommendation was the use of large, flat metal hinges.^[6] Talbert's work with Gillows was displayed at numerous international exhibitions, including the International Exhibition of 1873,^[7] and his designs in the Medieval and Jacobean styles were produced by many cabinet making firms.^[8] His designs tended to be highly detailed, including bold geometric inlaid patterns, intricately carved squares of boxwood and rows of small turned spindles. Some pieces included a carved verse with a moral message.^[6]

In the sideboards at the Judges' Lodgings, one of which is known as the Dundee Cabinet, produced by Gillows to Talbert's designs, his characteristic carved squares, geometric designs and rows of spindles are clearly evident.

The Dundee Cabinet is made of stained baywood with inlaid panels of thuya and boxwood. The item is stamped Gillows of Lancaster. An identical piece to this cabinet is illustrated in an entry dated 8 March 1872 in Gillows' Estimate Sketch Book. The drawing is annotated Inlaid bird panel as before, therefore it appears that a similar cabinet had been made previously. An elaborated version of the cabinet appeared in Talbert's Examples of Ancient and Modern Furniture, published in 1876.^[8]

The sideboard displayed in the butler's pantry is made of oak with panels of boxwood.^[8]

Publications

His first book, Gothic Forms Applied to Furniture, Metal Work, and Decoration for Domestic Purposes, was published in London in 1868, and in the United States in 1873. That was followed by Examples of Ancient & Modern Furniture, Metal Work, Tapestries, Decorations, published in London in 1876, and in the United States in 1877. A third book, Fashionable Furniture: A Collection of Three Hundred and Fifty Original Designs Representing Cabinet Work, Upholstery and Decoration (1881), was published posthumously.

Selected works

• Sleeping Beauty Sideboard (1867), manufactured by Holland & Sons, Victoria and Albert Museum, London.^[9]
• Pet Sideboard (1871), manufactured by Gillow & Co., Victoria and Albert Museum, London.^[10]
• Juno Cabinet (1878), manufactured by Jackson & Graham, Victoria and Albert Museum, London.^[11] Won the Grand Prix at the 1878 Paris Exhibition.

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  Clock (ca. 1865), Indianapolis Museum of Art.

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  Sideboard (1867). Part of the display that won a silver medal at the 1867 Paris Exhibition.

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  Sideboard (1867), Carnegie Museum of Art.

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  Dining chair (ca. 1867), Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

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  Illustration from Gothic Forms Applied to Furniture, Metal Work, and Decoration for Domestic Purposes (1868).

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  Dundee Cabinet -Judges' Lodgings, Lancaster

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  Low relief carving and surface hinges -Judges' Lodgings, Lancaster

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  Sideboard (ca. 1871), Art Institute of Chicago.

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  Hanging corner cabinet (ca. 1875), Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

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  Illustration from Examples of Ancient and Modern Furniture, Metal Work, Tapestries, Decorations (1876).

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  Illustration from The Cabinet Maker and Art Furnisher (1881).

References

Bibliography

• Payne, Christopher, ed. (1989). Sotheby's concise encyclopedia of furniture (Reprint ed.). London: Conran Octopus. ISBN 9781850296492. 
• Sally MacDonald, "Gothic Forms Applied to Furniture: The Early Work of Bruce James Talbert," Furniture History, vol. 23 (1987), pp. 39–66.
• Simon Jervis, "Charles, Bevan & Talbert," The Decorative Arts of the Victorian Period, ed. S. Wright (1989), pp. 15–29.

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