About George Bullock

George Bullock was a major and most influential early nineteenth century cabinet maker, and although he only had a short life he had a spectacular career. He was a highly talented individual who gained a reputation firstly as an artist of note and later as a cabinet-maker. He was renowned for the speed that his furniture was produced and the quality achieved, especially in refined and elegant inlay work. These are both tributes to his dynamism and entrepreneurial skills. Bullock was based in both London and Liverpool. He first moved to Liverpool as his brother, William, was established on Church Street as a museum promoter. It was here that Bullock met William Stoakes for whom he went into business with as a cabinet maker and general furnisher. This was the first time that Bullock started designing and making furniture. In 1810 his brother moved to London to create his famous museum in the Egyptian Hall in Piccadilly. George quickly followed and put the contents of his premises up for sale. Once in London Bullock committed to furniture design and in 1813 opened 'Bullock, George, Upholsterers' on the same site as his brother's museum before moving to the Mona Marble Works on Oxford Street with his new partner Charles Fraser. He stayed at these premises until his death in 1818, in his early forties. While most of Bullock's furniture was Neo-Classical in style, some was Gothic, Elizabethan and Jacobean. Bullock also developed these furniture styles far beyond other designers. While practicing as an artist, he sculpted in both marble and wax. The use of marble continued in Bullock's furniture designs. He also incorporated gilt metal ornamentation and ebony marquetry within the pieces. Bullock's portfolio included a wide range of exotic woods which, together with his inimitable style, produced a particularly recognizable "signature" to his work. The originality and advanced character of his designs, some in the French style, are amply demonstrated by the fact that G.J. Marant's work in precisely the same style - but produced twenty-five years later - looked equally up to date for the 1840's. In Bullock's short career he under took three major commissions, that of Great Tew Park, Cholmondely Castle and Abbotsford. These plans were to reflect the contemporary change in comfort and convenience that had taken place since the eighteenth century. . The artist Benjamin Robin Haydon referred to his turbulent but successful career: "George Bullock was one of those extraordinary beings who receive great good fortune and are never benefited by it, and suffer great evils, and are never ruined, always afloat but never in harbor."