William Watt

Identity:

William Watt (1834-1885) established his upholstery business in 1857; it appears in the directories as William Watt & Co., art furniture manufacturers, 21 Grafton Street, London in 1860. The firm produced and sold some of the finest furniture of the Aesthetic Movement, including cabinets designed by Edward William Godwin (1833-1886), some with panels painted by Godwin's then wife Beatrice Whistler (1857-1896). After Watt's death in 1885 the firm continued for two years under his trustees.

Life:

Godwin designed a fireplace, with an overmantel and side-panels, for William Watt & Co., and in 1878 Whistler worked on the decoration of the fireplace and surrounds. It was exhibited at the Exposition Universelle in Paris, at William Watt & Co.'s stand.

The cabinet itself, Harmony in Yellow and Gold: The Butterfly Cabinet y195, was altered for a later owner and is now in The Hunterian.

Other Watts furniture is in various major collections including the Victoria and Albert Museum, and Royal Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh.

Bibliography:

Watt, William and E.W. Godwin, Art furniture from designs by E.W. Godwin, F.S.A., and others, with hints and suggestions on domestic furniture and decoration, London 1877.

Kelly's London Postal Directory, London, 1860-64. Exposition Universelle, Paris, 1878, at William Watt's stand, 'Drawing Room Furniture. The Butterfly Cabinet and Fireplace . . . Decorations in yellow and gold designed and painted by J. A. McV. [sic] Whistler'. 'Our Lithographic Illustrations. "Anglo-Japanese Furniture at Paris exhibition by E.W. Godwin, F.S.A.", Building News and Engineering Journal, 34 (14 June 1878), pp. 596, 603. Day, Lewis F., 'Notes on English Decorative Art in Paris. Part 3', British Architect and Northern Engineer, 10 (12 July 1878), pp. 15-16. Anon., 'The Paris Universal exhibition V', Magazine of Art, September 1878, 1, p. 116. G.W.S. [Smalley, George W.],'A Harmony in Yellow and Gold', American Architect & Building News, vol. 4, no. 135, 27 July 1878, p. 36, first published as 'Household decoration ... Whistler's "Harmony in Yellow and Gold"', New York Tribune, 6 July 1878, p. 2.

Aslin, Elizabeth, E.W. Godwin, Furniture and Interior Decoration, London, 1986, pp. 13-14, cat. no. 9, Plate 64. Merrill, Linda, The Peacock Room. A Cultural Biography, New Haven and London, 1998, p. 261. Soros, Susan, The Secular Furniture of E.W. Godwin, New Haven, 1999, pp. 205, 226, cat. no. 369, no. 139-a. 7: M. F. MacDonald, 'The Beatrice Cabinet', in Beatrice Whistler. Artist and Designer, Hunterian Art Gallery, University of Glasgow, 1997, pp. 22-23. 8: Curry, David Park, 'Whistler and Decoration', Antiques, vol. 126, no. 5, November 1984, pp. 1186-99 at pp. 1196-7. Young, Andrew McLaren, Margaret F. MacDonald, Robin Spencer, and Hamish Miles, The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler, New Haven and London, 1980 .

Haslam & Whiteway website.