James Moore

Who was James Moore?

James Moore was an 18th-century cabinet maker in London who worked for George I. He was in partnership with John Gumley from 1714. As royal cabinet-maker he supplied walnut and mahogany furniture for the royal household, the royal yacht, and the king's servants and mistresses, as well as the rich gilt gesso furniture for which he is best known but which constituted a small part of his output.

Early references to Moore are in the Duke of Montagu's domestic expenses, 1708, and the entry in the Earl of Bristol's accounts, for "glass piers & sconces", 1710. Moore and his son, James Moore the younger, were among craftsmen furnishing Cannons for James Brydges, 1st Duke of Chandos A gilt gesso table from Stowe House, now at the Victoria and Albert is in the unmistakable style of James Moore; it bears the cypher and baron's coronet of Richard Temple, Lord Cobham, and can be dated 1714-18 on that basis.