New version of BIFMO launched, October 2019
BIFMO is now available in an enhanced online version: records of 50,000 furniture makers via a new design, with new content and search options.
About British and Irish Furniture Makers Online
The British and Irish Furniture Makers Online (BIFMO) project is a partnership between the Institute of Historical Research and the Furniture History Society.
BIFMO encompasses research, resources, training and events to engage with the global community of academics, students, scholars, genealogists and the art trade. Our mission is to serve as the one-stop definitive resource for British and Irish furniture makers from the early 17th century to the opening decades of the 20th century.
BIFMO provides details of furniture manufacturers and suppliers: their organising structures, their clientele, the material they produced and the services they provided. This is an ambitious goal and one which requires the contribution of scholars, academics, collectors, amateurs and genealogists for years to come.
At the same time, BIFMO is of interest to scholars across a wide range of disciplines, including furniture and design history, histories of material culture and the decorative arts, local and regional history, histories of trades and craftsmanship and social and trade networks. BIFMO is also relevant to the work of curators, collectors, and practitioners and artisans working in the heritage sector and creative industries today.
New approaches to furniture history
Dr Laurie Lindey considers how BIFMO offers new perspectives on the history of the English furniture trades.
