The brass-enriched hall stand, bearing an 1882 patent registration brand, relates to a pattern in the 1880s catalogue of Messrs. Smee & Cobey. The hall stand, with brass and foliate enrichments reflecting the enthusiasm for 'Art Botany' promoted by Christopher Dresser (d.1904), the self styled 'ornamentist', who contributed to Owen Jones's Grammar of Ornament, 1856. The hall stand is closely related to that illustrated in the Trade Catalogue of Messrs. Smeee & Cobey and it is possible that this hall stand was manufactured by them or the London firm of James Shoolbred & Co. They exhibited a very extensive selection of items in the 1878 Paris Universal Exhibition and became one of the first large department stores in London. They expanded from a small draper business and started to manufacture high quality furniture, circa 1870, for which they were given a Royal warrant by the mid-1880s. An almost identical hall stand by Shoolbred was sold anonymously, Christie's, London, 4 March 2004, lot 69.