William & John Linnell
John Linnell was the son of the furniture maker William Linnell and one of the first English furniture makers to be educated in design, studying at the Saint Martin’s Lane Academy that had previously been founded by William Hogarth. In 1762 he started working closely with Robert Adam, and in 1763 with the death of his father he took over the running of the family firm. These two combining factors pushed his work in a new classical direction. His many and varied works rivaled those of other leading furniture makers such as Thomas Chippendale, Mayhew and Ince, Robert Adam and John Cobb for aesthetic beauty and taste. Most importantly it was the re-introduction of marquetry into English furniture manufacture that William and more importantly John Linnell championed and that they felt revived the neo-classical ideals.
