Mallett Antiques

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.

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.

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