Maple & Co Inlaid Mahogany Display Cabinet

A very fine quality display or china cabinet by the renowned firm of Maple & Co. Made from solid Cuban mahogany with inlaid satinwood cross banding and box line stringing. The 3 opening doors are air tight, a sign of the quality and a trade mark of Maple & Co. Inside are fixed shelves for displaying china or curios. The edges of the shelves are even inlaid. The central door is bevelled glass, again a sign of the quality and she sits on 4 out swept legs. You don't often see a piece of furniture made to such a high level of craftsmanship by one of the top London firms in the Edwardian era. Although not marked Maple & Co this is one of their models that they sold, some of their furniture was marked and some not, this model is shown in the brochure of the period. Maple & Co was established by John Maple, a shopkeeper from Horley, Surrey, who later opened a furniture shop in Tottenham Court Road. However it was his son, John Blundell Maple , who made Maples & Co a success. With exceptional business skills, John B. Maple took over the company while still a young man. By the 1880s they were the largest furniture store in the world, exported their fine furniture to every continent. Maples manufactured their luxury furniture entirely in-house, at a huge modern complex. A timber importer and furniture exporter, they landed prestigious contracts furnishing fine houses, hotels, embassies and palaces in Europe; among them Tsar Nicholas’s Winter Palace and the Hofburg Imperial Palace in Vienna . With his own empire established, John Blundell Maple achieved further fame in politics and horseracing – some lines, such as the Atherstoke antique cabinet, having racing connections in the titles. Never compromising on quality, Maples produced a huge catalogue of fine furniture, covering every avenue of interior design. A Maples & Co sale today would cover everything from Chippendale Revival antique dining chairs , to Aesthetic style carved oak dressers, to Art Nouveau tulip carved antique dining tables – all from the same catalogue. The exclusivity and high quality of craftsmanship of Maples’ antique cabinets, dining suites and bedroom furniture made them highly popular with Britain’s social elite. Today, they appeal to anyone who appreciates fine craftsmanship.