Auction Details
John Hobbs was born in 1946. His father Sid was the proprietor of Odds and Hobbs, a King’s Road junk shop, where being something
of a philosopher, he held court to a circle of local admirers. John left school at fourteen and I met him not long after, staying on the Welsh borders
in the house of Lord Harlech, then away in Washington as our ambassador to the United States. He was then a youth of striking beauty, who looked as if he’d strayed from a band of angels in a quatrocento painting. A few years later he was apprenticed to a tallyman (a travelling salesman for
a firm specializing in hire purchase) and learned to knock on doors and, as a sideline, to charm goods out of hungry owners. In 1974 he set up business in the newly-established Furniture Cave, supplying, at a modest mark up, dutch marquetry to the Belgians and italian furniture and painted Edwardian satinwood to the Italians. Here he was joined by his younger brother Carlton, or Carly. It was the moment when Biedermeier, with its light colouring and simply elegant lines was beginning to be appreciated, and they bought boldly and well, made big profits, and met new clients. They moved to the Pimlico Road in 1987, travelling much in Sweden, Denmark and Finland, countries then awash with Russian furniture, which they brought to London and sold to Mallets at Bourdon House, to their neighbours in Pimlico, and to America.
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