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It was founded in 1803 by William Holland ( fl 1803-43). From 1803 to 1843 the cabinetmakers and upholsterers William Holland and Stephen Taprell (d 1847) were in partnership. Their firm was called Taprell & Holland until 1835, Taprell, Holland & Son until 1843, and Holland & Sons after 1843. In 1851 the firm employed over 350 men. In 1852 it incorporated the prestigious firm of Thomas Dowbiggin (1788-1854), taking over its Mount Street premises in London. Holland & Sons received commissions for furnishing many of the government buildings and clubs built in 19th-century London, including the Athenaeum, the Reform Club, and the British Museum. The firm worked on many royal commissions, making furniture for Buckingham Palace, London, Windsor Castle, Berks, Osborne House, Isle of Wight, and Balmoral, Grampian. Holland & Sons exhibited a bookcase at the Great Exhibition of 1851, for which they won a prize, and continued to show at major exhibitions throughout the century. Best known for their Gothic Revival furniture, they also worked in other fashionable revival styles, including the Louis XV and XVI, Renaissance and Elizabethan. Holland & Sons were technical innovators, from the first using in their workshops the most modern machinery available. The firm remained under family control until it closed in 1942.
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