Benjamin Goodison

[2] Goodison's classicizing case furniture owes much of its inspiration to the neo-Palladian designs of William Kent;[3] outstanding documented examples are the pair of part-gilded mahogany commodes and library writing-tables Goodison made for Sir Thomas Robinson of Rokeby Hall, Yorkshire, now in the Royal Collection; they have boldly-scaled Greek key fret in their friezes and lion masks gripping brass rings heading scrolling consoles at their corners.

For the furnishing of new apartments at Hampton Court Palace, Goodison supplied for the Queen's Staircase, the octagonal brass lantern surmounted by a royal crown; it cost £138 in 1729.

Pray send for him see him hear... Mr. Wilson I desire you to pay to Benjamin Goodison the summ of five hundred pounds taking his hand for the fee received in for his master Mr. Moore your account of fourniture for the use of Blenheim.

"[14] In July 1740 he was her agent in purchasing Lady Westmoreland's house in Dover Street, London, so advantageously that the Duchess made him a gift of twenty guineas.

Goodison was employed by Thomas Coke, 1st Earl of Leicester[18] for furnishing Holkham, Norfolk, where surviving carved and gilded suites of chairs and tables are securely attributed to him, as well as the brass appliqués on the porphyry sideboard in the Dining Room,[19] which was designed by the Palladian architect John Vardy.

[20] It is reasonable to assume that the long suite of 23 giltwood armchairs, 9 settees and 4 stools covered in crimson "Genoa" cut velvet was supplied by Goodison.

[21] Three further pieces at Holkham, a mahogany table-press "carv'd and gilt with wire doors" and a pair of card tables, perhaps recorded in a bill of 1757, and a kneehole writing- or dressing-table, were tentatively attributed to Goodison by Anthony Coleridge.