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64  Virginia woolf at monk’s house 9 FIG 9 Leonard Woolf’s niece, Molly Sturgeon, in the firstfloor sitting room at Monk’s House, leaning forward to reveal a cushion, designed by Vanessa Bell and embroidered by Virginia Woolf, undated, gelatin silver print, 9 x 14cm Courtesy Houghton Library, Harvard University FIG 10 Chair seat designed by Angelica Bell (1918–2012) and embroidered by Virginia Woolf, 1930s, Monk’s House, East Sussex Photo: © National Trust Images/Charles Thomas 10 1. Recent Paintings by Vanessa Bell with a Foreword by Virginia Woolf, February 4th to March 8th 1930, London, 1930. 2. Vanessa Bell to Angelica Garnett, 24 November 1941, quoted in Diane Gillespie, The Sisters’ Arts, New York, 1988, p. 72. 3. Recent Paintings by Vanessa Bell, 1930, op. cit. 4. Ibid. 5. Ibid. 6. Victoria Rosner, ‘Virginia Woolf and Monk’s House’, Maggie Humm (ed.), The Edinburgh Companion to Virginia Woolf and the Arts, Edinburgh, 2010, p. 181. 7. Anne Olivier Bell (ed.), The Diary of Virginia Woolf: Volume 3, 1925–1930, London, 1980, p. 212. 8. Nigel Nicolson (ed.), The Letters of Virginia Woolf: Volume 4, 1929–1931, London, 1978, p. 41. 9. Anne Olivier Bell (ed.), The Diary of Virginia Woolf: Volume 1, 1915–1919, London, 1977, pp. 61–62. 10. Nigel Nicolson (ed.), The Letters of Virginia Woolf: Volume 2, 1912–1922, London, 1976, p. 187. 11. Ibid. 12. Sarah Milroy & Ian Dejardin (eds.), Vanessa Bell, London, 2017, p. 101 13. Bell (ed.), Diary of Virginia Woolf: Volume 1, op. cit., pp. 140–41. 14. Ibid. 15. Nicolson (ed.), Letters of Virginia Woolf: Volume 2, op. cit., p. 19 7. 16. Gillespie, op. cit., p. 234. 17. Recent Paintings by Vanessa Bell, 1930, op. cit. 18. Nigel Nicolson (ed.), The Letters of Virginia Woolf: Volume 5, 1932–1935, London, 1979, p. 281. 19. Catalogue of Recent Paintings by Vanessa Bell, March 1934, with a Foreword by Virginia Woolf, London, 1934, p. 1. 20. Nigel Nicolson (ed.), The Letters of Virginia Woolf: Volume 3, 1923–1928, London, 1977, p. 24 (for Woolf’s desire to purchase a work by Matisse); Virginia Woolf, Roger Fry: A Biography, London, 1940, pp. 254, 270. 21. Vita Sackville-West to Harold Nicolson, June 1926. Quoted in Victoria Glendinning, The Life of Vita Sackville-West, London, 1983, p. 163. 22. Anne Olivier Bell (ed.), The Diary of Virginia Woolf: Volume 2, 1920–1924, London, 1978, p. 109. 23. Nicolson (ed.), Letters of Virginia Woolf: Volume 3, op. cit., pp. 202–03. 24. Ibid, p. 414. 25. Bell (ed.), Diary of Virginia Woolf: Volume 3, op. cit., p. 89. 26. Nigel Nicolson (ed.), The Letters of Virginia Woolf: Volume 6, 1936–1941, London, 1980, pp. 422–23. 27. Vita Sackville-West to Harold Nicolson, 8 April 1941. Quoted in Glendinning, op. cit., p. 315.
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WOMEN FURNITURE MAKERS ‘I BEQUEATH UNTO MY LOVING WIFE’: WOMEN FURNITURE MAKERS IN EARLY MODERN LONDON The ‘feme sole’ status granted to widowed women in the early modern period allowed them to run their own businesses. LAURIE LINDEY examines the lives of two women who managed successful furniture workshops FIG 1 Trade card of G. Coxed and T. Woster at the White Swan in St. Paul’s ChurchYard, London, c. 1718–35, private collection. Image courtesy the author Swan in St. Paul’s Church- . 1718–35, Image courtesy the author 1 EARLY MODERN LONDON created work opportunities for middle-class women beyond the domestic sphere.1 Single women were employed in coffeehouses and inns and as shopkeepers, while married women often worked in their husbands’ businesses, buying and selling and managing company affairs. In order to work in a skilled occupation or trade in London, however, membership of a City livery company was required. The most common method of gaining membership was through apprenticeship or patrimony, with decisions resting largely in the hands of men. The legal rights of women depended primarily on their marital status. Under English common law, unmarried, divorced or widowed women over the age of 21 held the legal status of feme sole, enabling them to trade and own property, while a married woman had the status of feme covert, with limited financial and legal independence.2 By custom, married women were able to practise a craft or trade with their husbands’ permission, but widows were, in general, able to manage their own businesses independently. They were free to carry on their late husbands’ trades because the period of their marriage was considered the equivalent of serving a seven-year apprenticeship. Consequently, 10 to 20 per cent of households and businesses in early modern London were headed by widows.3 Becoming familiar with their husbands’ businesses during their lifetimes provided women with good insurance for widowhood. It was also common for widows to remarry men in the same line of business as their late husbands. Women had an important role to play in carrying out such tasks as retailing goods, managing company accounts, acquiring raw materials necessary for manufacture, supervising journeymen and apprentices, and, in some cases, working alongside their husbands on the bench.4 This article looks at two widows in particular, Martha Martin and Grace Coxed, who inherited and carried on their late husbands’ furniture businesses at the turn of the 18th century. They, along with over 70,000 other furniture makers, are included in a new, free to access, online database entitled British and Irish Furniture Makers Online (BIFMO), a partnership project between the Furniture History Society and the Institute of Historical

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64  Virginia woolf at monk’s house

9

FIG 9 Leonard Woolf’s niece, Molly Sturgeon, in the firstfloor sitting room at Monk’s House, leaning forward to reveal a cushion, designed by Vanessa Bell and embroidered by Virginia Woolf, undated, gelatin silver print, 9 x 14cm Courtesy Houghton Library, Harvard University FIG 10 Chair seat designed by Angelica Bell (1918–2012) and embroidered by Virginia Woolf, 1930s, Monk’s House, East Sussex Photo: © National Trust Images/Charles Thomas

10

1. Recent Paintings by Vanessa Bell with a Foreword by Virginia Woolf, February 4th to March 8th 1930, London, 1930. 2. Vanessa Bell to Angelica Garnett, 24 November 1941, quoted in Diane Gillespie, The Sisters’ Arts, New York, 1988, p. 72. 3. Recent Paintings by Vanessa Bell, 1930, op. cit. 4. Ibid. 5. Ibid. 6. Victoria Rosner, ‘Virginia Woolf and Monk’s House’, Maggie Humm (ed.), The Edinburgh Companion to

Virginia Woolf and the Arts, Edinburgh, 2010, p. 181. 7. Anne Olivier Bell (ed.), The Diary of Virginia Woolf: Volume 3, 1925–1930, London, 1980, p. 212. 8. Nigel Nicolson (ed.), The Letters of Virginia Woolf: Volume 4, 1929–1931, London, 1978, p. 41. 9. Anne Olivier Bell (ed.), The Diary of Virginia Woolf: Volume 1, 1915–1919, London, 1977, pp. 61–62. 10. Nigel Nicolson (ed.), The Letters of Virginia Woolf: Volume 2, 1912–1922, London, 1976, p. 187.

11. Ibid. 12. Sarah Milroy & Ian Dejardin (eds.), Vanessa Bell, London, 2017, p. 101 13. Bell (ed.), Diary of Virginia Woolf: Volume 1, op. cit., pp. 140–41. 14. Ibid. 15. Nicolson (ed.), Letters of Virginia Woolf: Volume 2, op. cit., p. 19 7. 16. Gillespie, op. cit., p. 234. 17. Recent Paintings by Vanessa Bell, 1930, op. cit. 18. Nigel Nicolson (ed.), The Letters of Virginia Woolf: Volume 5, 1932–1935, London, 1979,

p. 281. 19. Catalogue of Recent Paintings by Vanessa Bell, March 1934, with a Foreword by Virginia Woolf, London, 1934, p. 1. 20. Nigel Nicolson (ed.), The Letters of Virginia Woolf: Volume 3, 1923–1928, London, 1977, p. 24 (for Woolf’s desire to purchase a work by Matisse); Virginia Woolf, Roger Fry: A Biography, London, 1940, pp. 254, 270. 21. Vita Sackville-West to Harold Nicolson, June 1926. Quoted in Victoria Glendinning, The Life of Vita Sackville-West, London, 1983, p. 163.

22. Anne Olivier Bell (ed.), The Diary of Virginia Woolf: Volume 2, 1920–1924, London, 1978, p. 109. 23. Nicolson (ed.), Letters of Virginia Woolf: Volume 3, op. cit., pp. 202–03. 24. Ibid, p. 414. 25. Bell (ed.), Diary of Virginia Woolf: Volume 3, op. cit., p. 89. 26. Nigel Nicolson (ed.), The Letters of Virginia Woolf: Volume 6, 1936–1941, London, 1980, pp. 422–23. 27. Vita Sackville-West to Harold Nicolson, 8 April 1941. Quoted in Glendinning, op. cit., p. 315.

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