Displayed at The Great Exhibition 1851. A fine exceptional 19th century burr walnut marquetry inlaid and ormolu mounted cabinet Made In England by William Smee & Son. C.1830 A stepped moulded top above a frieze and centred with Green Man mask inlay and also at the sides. There are marquetry inlaid floral sprays above two doors set with ormolu and further marquetry inlaid Green Man detail flanked by caryatid uprights above a stepped plinth base. Bearing a brass plaque inscribed ''William Smee & Son, Manufacturers, 6 Finsbury Pavement, London'', width 128.5cm, height 110cm, depth 44cm.

Smee, William, London, cm and u (1806–40). At 5 Pavement, Moorfields from 1806, although by 1838 it had been renumbered 6 and is referred to as Finsbury Pavement. From 1835 had additional premises at 34 Little Moorfields. In the period 1838–40 referred to as William Smee & Sons. A breakfront mahogany bookcase of c. 1825 is known marked with the name of this maker. [D; Christie's, 16 April 1970, lot 128]

Smee, William; Smee & Cobbay

London; cabinet maker and upholder (fl.1805–90)   

A billhead in the John Johnson Collection, Bodleian Library is dated 1805 with an address at 5 Pavement, Moorfields, although by 1838 it had been renumbered 6 and is referred to as Finsbury Pavement. From 1835 Smee had additional premises at 34 Little Moorfields. In the period 1838–40 referred to as William Smee & Son and later W A Smee & Son(s). In the London Postal Directory of 1851 the firm was recorded as upholsterers, undertakers and appraisers, in 1871 as upholsterers and cabinet makers at 18-20 Finsbury Pavement and 10 & 12 Little Moorfields and in the 1886 Furniture Gazette as wholesale cabinet makers at 6 Finsbury Pavement and Little Moorfields, with works at King Henry’s Walk, Ball’s Pond.  By 1890 the firm was known as Smee & Cobbay. The firm exhibited a walnut and marquetry cabinet at the 1851 Great Exhibition. At the 1862 London International Exhibition Smee and Sons showed a finely carved chiffonier in Italian walnut with tulipwood bandings and a wardrobe in birch and tulipwood.  An oak sideboard by the firm was shown at the 1878 Paris Exhibition (all these illus. Meyer (2006), pp. 57, 159, 160 & 261). Makers of a daybed exhibited at the Arts and Crafts Society Exhibition in 1888, and possibly all the furniture designs for R & A Garrett House Decorators (fl.1874-1905). The firm certainly supplied West End furnishing shops and also provincial furniture makers such as Pratt’s of Bradford.  Numerous illustrations taken from Smee’s pattern books are reproduced in Joy (1977). Among recorded furniture is a dinner wagon, c. 1840, of oak with carved decoration, V&A (W.110-1978). 

William Alfred Smee (1829-1886) and Sylvanus Smee (1835-1870) were sons of Wiliam Smee jnr (1797-1856), cabinet-maker and upholsterer and Citizen of London, a member of the Dyers Company. They were grandsons of William Smee (1761-1843) also a cabinet-maker

and upholsterer and a Citizen and Dyer. The Smee family were Quakers.
William Smee snr established a cabinet-making business at no.5 Pavement, Moorfields, London, around 1802. His eldest son William was apprenticed to him in February 1812 and made free in March 1819. Father and son formed a partnership around 1820 which also included John Smee (1806-1867), younger son of William Smee snr. Although an advertisement in the London Gazette in March 1838 announced that the partnership was dissolved in relation to John Smee the name William Smee and Son/s was maintained into the 1860s. The 1851 census shows William Smee jnr employing 90 men and 12 women. William's three sons were involved in the business: William Alfred, Sylvanus and John Henry Smee (1831-1912). William Smee jnr died in 1856 and by the late 1860s his sons had established separate businesses: W.A. & S. Smee, trading from 6 Finsbury Pavement, and John Henry Smee & Co., trading from 20 Finsbury Pavement.