Britain at Work
A Pictorial Description of Our National Industries

THE FURNITURE TRADE. 267 craftsman from being entirely superseded by the manipulator of labour-saving ma- chinery. The two firms which we have taken as types of two opposing schools of manufacture both confine their attention to the wood- working side of the trade. There are others, however, which include upholstery, a very important branch of furniture manufacture in these ease-loving days. Such a firm is that of Mr. Cornelius V. Smith, of Osnaburgh Street, N.W., of whose upholstering shop we give a photograph. It is a curious sight to see a lot of easy chairs and couches with their interior anatomy exposed to view, receiving the careful attention of skilful workmen which results in that luxurious softness and springiness everyone seeks— but does not always find—in an easy chair. Some of the secrets of those qualities we learn in the upholstering shop, where we see that the exceptional springiness of a divan settee we have noticed in the showroom is due to its possession of a double set of springs, and that the delicious softness of a specially luxurious chair is obtained by stuffing it with a mixture of horsehair and swansdown. Mr. C. V. Smith is the largest wholesale manufacturing upholsterer and cabinet-maker in the trade, and is one of the few firms in the furniture trade which manufacture practically everything that is required in the furnishing of a house from bedroom to billiard-room. Hugh B. Philpott. Photo: Cassell & Co., Ltd, A BUSY SCENE AT MESSRS. SHAPLAND AND PETTER’S WORKS, BARNSTAPLE.