A WILLIAM AND MARY WALNUT AND MARQUETRY MIRROR

Percy Macquoid's passion for furniture led to a varied career ranging from set designer for the St James's theatre (1900-1922), to consultant on the period furniture needed for Queen Mary's doll house, built in 1923. It is however, for his literary accomplishments such as the four-volume book History of English Furniture that Percy Macquoid is most often remembered. This impressive work in four volumes prompted H. Avray Tipping to describe him as 'the first serious student to bestow time and attention on the comprehensive survey of the field and to give to the public the results of his labours'.
After his marriage to Theresa Dent in 1891, he moved to The Yellow House in Bayswater. An article published in The King in April 1902, noted that at his London home, Macquoid had created period rooms furnished with English and Continental works of art; and Mrs Macquoid's boudoir was furnished with Queen Anne chairs and a William and Mary chest-of-drawers. A room from The Yellow House is displayed with some of his collection at Preston Manor, Brighton (D. Beevers, 'Percy Macquoid, Artist, Decorator and Historian', The Antique Collector, June 1984, pp. 70-75).