Daniel Justin Langlois
Henry Haarnack chose to be married in 1834 at Holy Trinity - one of the brand new fashionable Waterloo churches at the corner of Regent's Park.
The page in the church register for Holy Trinity show that one of their witnesses -was Daniel Justin Langlois.
The Best Man is usually the groom' friend and in this case, he was probably a workmate.
Subsequent research in the 1881 census revealed that Daniel Justin was also a harp maker.
I believe that he was a descendant of the famous cabinet -maker:-Langlois, Pierre (1759--81).
Langlois was working in London by 1759 and the earliest reference to him is a bill, dated 13 April 1759 in the accounts of the Dukes of Bedford, for a fire-screen.
In Thomas Mortimer's Universal Director (London, 1763) he is described as producing '...all sorts of curious inlaid work, particularly commodes in the foreign taste, inlaid with tortoiseshell, brass, etc.Langlois made a marquetry commode (1760; Woburn Abbey, Beds) for John Russell, 4th Duke of Bedford (1710--71), and another (1764; New York, Met.) for George William, 6th Earl of Coventry (1722--1809). Horace William Walpole, 4th Earl of Orford, bought two commodes from Langlois, and Caroline, Lady Holland (1723--74)---who already owned two case pieces by him---commissioned from Langlois either a commode or a pair of corner cupboards as a present for her sister Lady Louisa Conolly (1743--1821).
His trade card, printed in both French and English, lists some of the other types of furniture he made: clockcases, corner cabinets and secretaires. Until 1781 Langlois paid rates on his shop, but after 1766 there are few other references to him.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
P. Thornton and W. Reider: 'Pierre Langlois, ebeniste', Connoisseur, clxxviii (1971), pp. 283--8; clxxix (1972), pp. 105--12, 176--87, 257--65; clxxx (1972), pp. 30--35
G. Beard and C. Gilbert, eds: Dictionary of English Furniture Makers, 1660--1840 (Leeds, 1986) N
Georgian Cabinet Makers
c. 1700-1800
Georgian Cabinet Makers A new and revised edition
by
Ralph Edwards and Margaret Joudain MCMLV
LESSER-KNOWN AND MINOR CABINET-MAKERS
PETER LANGLOIS Worked in England,
circa 1760-70
The first recorded reference to this maker occurs in the accounts for refurnishing Woburn Abbey for the third Duke of Bedford, a payment to him of /378. 8s. 'for a large inlaid commode table' being entered in December 1760.1 Langlois' name also occurs in the Description of Horace Walpole's villa at Strawberry Hill, where on the writing table in the breakfast-room was 'an inlaid writing box by Langlois. Walpole bought from him in 1763 'two commodes and two coins' (encoignures) for the gallery. On March 21 of that year Caroline, first Lady Holland, writes from London to her sister, Emily, Countess of Kildare, about a present of furniture for a third sister, Lady Louisa Connolly, 'I hear she like L'Anglay's inlaid things very much, and I should wish to send her something that might suit some of her rooms, whether commode table, bureau or coins, which to be sure one might vulgarly call corner cupboards; but really they are lovely and finish a room so well. I have two beauties in the salon at Holland House'.2 The first Duchess of Northumberland notes in her memorandum book the purchase of 'a table inlaid wood by Langlois', which is probably one of the card tables with inlaid tops at Syon House.3 George Montague writes to Horace Walpole on March 12, 1766: 'I will take my corporal oath that three parts of the japan you gave Langlois to make into commodes is still there, and so will Mr. Chute. He carried me to see his things, and there it was flowing about the rooms in panells and on the staircase; 'tis a burning shame.' In his trade card Langlois gives his address as Tottenham Court Road and states that he 'makes all sorts of fine cabinets and commodes made and inlaid in the politest manner with brass and tortoiseshell, and likewise all rich ornamental clock cases and inlaid work mended with great care. Branch chandeliers and lanthorns in brass at the lowest prices The advertisement is printed in French and English, indicating that he sought to obtain a market in the country of his origin (Plate 227).
Peter Langlois, it is stated in Mortimer's Universal Director (1763), 'performs all sorts of curious inlaid work, particularly commodes in the foreign taste, inlaid with tortoiseshell, brass, etc.' This notice shows that, like Gerreit Jensen (q.v.) at an earlier date he worked in a metal technique based on the practice of Andre Charles Boulle. He is possibly the Pierre- Eloi Langlois (1735-1803), who became a maitre-menusier in 1773 and apparently worked in Paris for the remainder of his life.3 1 Family Background, G. Scott Thomson, 1949, p. 53.
2 Correspondence of Emily, Duchess of Leinster, edited by Brian Fitzgerald, Irish MSS. Commission, Vol. I,
N.B. The Duke of Leinster was a signatory on the Marriage settlement of Mary HORNECK and Frances Edward Gwyn. Does this point to a connection between the HORNECK and KHAARNACK families?
There is a pair of inlaid pier tables and a set of painted and gilt furniture, c. 1770 and certainly by the same maker, at Audley End. See also F. de Salverte, Les Ebenistes du XVIIIe Siecle, 1934.
The Lonsdale Langlois Commode
A George III Ormolu-Mounted Rosewood, Fruitwood and Marquetry Bombe Commode by Pierre Langlois
Sold for $2,532,500
24 November 1998
Christie's, New York
Auction record for an English commode
Pierre Langlois had two factories, one in Paris and one in London.
George III Marquetry Commode with bronze mounts attributed to Pierre Langlois.
Langlois also receives a mention in the following book:
CHIPPENDALE. Coleridge, Anthony. Chippendale Furniture. The work of Thomas Chippendale and his Contemporaries in the Rococo taste - Vile, Cobb, Langlois, Channon, Hallett, Ince and Mayhew, Lock, Johnson, and others ca. 1745-1765. London. Faber & Faber. 1968.
This webpage was first published on 2nd January 2001
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