Worshipful Company Of Furniture Makers
The Worshipful Company of Furniture Makers is the City of London Livery Company of the British Furniture Industry. It was founded as a Guild in 1951 and was granted the Letters Patent of a Livery Company in 1963.
What we do is best summed up in the formal language of the first of our authorised Objects -
To foster both the Craft and the Industry of Furniture Making, Marketing and Retailing in the United Kingdom
How do we do it? Largely through our Guild Marks and the Training Opportunities that we provide.
The Guild Marks reward quality and impart confidence. There are two categories: one is for the finest commissioned pieces of craftsman made furniture, the Craft Guild Marks. For manufacturing companies judged to be making furniture and beds to the highest standards, there are the Company Guild Marks.
Our Training Opportunities usually consist of places on a tour for design students and on short courses for people at or near the start of their career in manufacturing or retail management. Details, for all three categories, and how to apply for places, are published on this site each autumn. The tour and courses take place the following spring.
A third activity, also directly in tune with our Objects, is networking. As a modern Company we are a ‘closed shop’: membership is restricted to people in or connected with the furniture industry. Consequently, our social activities provide opportunities for discussion and the generation of new ideas across the whole spectrum of the furniture trade. It is this aspect of the Company that most attracts furniture people to join the Company.