On June 11, 1879, the British Admiralty launched a competition to design a piece of furniture made from the timbers of the "Resolute" which Queen Victoria could gift to the American president. A January 3, 1880 article in "The Builder" described the desired furniture piece as "a magnificent article of furniture, combining writing table, bookshelves &amp;c., ... made out of the ship's timber and sent as a present to the President of the United States." Six firms, including Morant, Boyd, &amp; Blanford and Jackson &amp; Graham, submitted competing designs. Morant, Boyd, &amp; Blanford was chosen to complete the furniture piece. According to Kelly's London Post Office Directory of 1871, Morant, Boyd, &amp; Blanford were "interior decorators, painters, upholsterers, estate and housing managers, carvers, gilders and cabinet makers" with two locations, one at 91 New Bond Street and the other at 4–7 Woodstock Street. The company was founded by George Morant and had supplied work for Thomas Lawrence, Robert Peel, and the Dukes of Sussex, Cambridge, and Sutherland. The company also exhibited at the Great Exhibition, the Exhibition of the Industry of All Nations, and the 1862 International Exhibition. Queen Victoria granted the company a Royal Warrant of Appointment in 1840. For the rest of the century, they were seen as one of the preeminent cabinet makers in England.