Working for his family’s woollen mills as a teenager, in the 1840s George Shaw (1810–76) was operating a sizeable architectural practice in Uppermill. Building and reworking churches and homes, his firm also created painted glass, cast-iron work, and furniture.
This book provides an important new account of Shaw’s formative years as an architect and antiquary by presenting extensive edited extracts from his diaries and correspondence. Shaw’s letters reveal how he leveraged antiquarian knowledge to produce fake ‘Tudor’ furniture sold as genuinely ancient ‘relics’ to Northern aristocrats.
'The Intimacies of George Shaw is an outstanding addition to the field of architectural history'
'The Chetham Society should be commended for publishing the book to such a high standard'
Yorkshire Archaeological Journal (2025)
'Peter Lindfield’s book gives a fascinating insight into the world of George Shaw, about whom little has been written. From his diaries and letters he emerges as a colourful and attractive character, a keen antiquary and collector with an insatiable passion for the past, but shamelessly blurring the boundary between fact and fiction with his historical forgeries.'
David Meara; Monumental Brass Society, Bulletin (Oct 2025), pp. 1198-99.
Price: £39.95
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