page_title: Mallett Antiques
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Mallett Antiques / History
caption_attribution_description: English: View of the interior of the Old Octagon Church. Opened in 1760. Now containing the 18th century collections of antique furniture, china, etc. Mallett's Bath Showrooms in the Octagon.
context_page_description: Mallett Antiques is an antiques dealer with galleries in London and New York who regularly exhibit at the International Fine Art & Antique Fairs.
  Mallett & Son Antiques is one of England's oldest dealers of fine antiquities. They specialize in English and Continental furniture and decor.
context_section_description: The company was founded in 1865 by John Mallett (a jeweller and Silversmith) at 36 Milsom Street, Bath, Somerset, England. His son, Walter Mallett, who had joined his father's business in the 1870s or early '80s, quickly assumed complete control, and today he is acknowledged by Mallett as the real founder of the firm. It was he who expanded the stock to include old silver and furniture and who arranged for the purchase of the lease of the Octagon Chapel. This building had originally, in 1767, been designed as a church by the architect Thomas Lightholder, whose specific brief was to produce a structure which would be warm, comfortable and well lit. The Octagon fulfilled all of these requirements, and it became quite the most fashionable church in Bath. Eminent and distinguished visitors made a point of engaging a pew for as long as they stayed in the city, hiring it at the same time as they hired their lodgings. The most expensive of these were like small rooms, each with its own fireplace and easy chairs. Between service and sermon, an interval was allowed during which footmen poked the fires and saw that their master and mistress were comfortable. The vault of this building were let out to a wine merchant, which gave rise to the verses by Christopher Anstey: 
  Spirits above and spirits below, 
  
  Spirits of Bliss and spirits of woe, 
  
  The spirits above are spirits Divine,
  
  The spirits below are spirirts of wine. 
  Since the building was leasehold, it was never consecrated, so when it fell into disuse in the 1890s Mallett's take it over. New Showrooms were built on each side of the church, with workshops and storage in the basement. A gas engine was installed to drive the polishing lathes, work the lift, make the electric light and, by means of a fan, circulate air through every part of the building. With the improvement in communications, express trains serviced the West Country to and from London and facilitated attendance at the spa, bringing much added interest and business to Mallett's at the Octagon.
  In 1908 the Franco-British Exhibition (1908)  was held at Earls Court in London, and the firm took a stand there. This was such a successful venture that Walter Mallett decided to open a permanent shop in London, and he took a lease of premises at 40 New Bond Street, which contained showrooms on two floors displaying stock of furniture including mirrors, pictures and objects, each room arranged to re-create the atmosphere of a private house.
  On his death in 1930, the business passed to a consortium of six of his employees, who in 1937 decided to close the Octagon premises and move the whole business to London. Francis Mallett became chairman. On his death he left a large part of his collection to the Ashmolean museum at Oxford. After the Second World War, under the new chairmanship of Francis Egerton, Mallett's began to assume its present form.
  Mallett's have an association with museums and private collections all over the world including the Victoria and Albert Museum.
  In 1983 Francis Egerton retired and in 1987, under the new management, Mallett became a public company. Lanto Synge assumed the role of Chief Executive until 2009 when he retired. Lanto Synge has had a number of books published on antiques and on antique needlework, a particular specialty of his, including 'Art of Embroidery — A history of Style and Technique', produced in conjunction with the Royal School of Needlework. In 1999 he published 'Mallett Millennium', which is illustrated throughout with photographs from the extensive Mallett archives.
  In 1991, the Bond Street business moved to new enlarged premises at 141 New Bond Street with twelve showrooms.
  In 2012 Mallett moved its premises to Ely House, 37 Dover Street. This classical townhouse, built as the London palace for the Bishop of Ely, remains in the centre of London's art market. It is, like Mallett's first gallery in Bath, a famous architectural masterpiece and a Grade I listed building, designed by the renowned neo-classical architect Robert Taylor in 1772 for Robert Keene, the Bishop of Ely. F
caption: A rare photograph of the Mallett Showrooms at the Octagon Chapel, Bath, circa 1900.
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