Collections

The Geffrye Museum's collections comprise furniture, textiles, paintings and objects displayed in a series of period rooms from 1600 to the present day. Reflecting changes in English domestic style and taste over the past 400 years, they include objects of national importance as well as specialist items including the earliest known piece of English furniture to bear a trade label, 18th and 19th-century tea caddies and workboxes, an important collection of Utility material and a extensive collection of 1950s curtain fabrics. Other key themes include the nationally significant Cotton Collection of English regional chairs, a specialised Christmas archive and a prominent collection of paintings and prints representing urban domestic interiors and gardens, including recent acquisitions by James Tissot and Rebecca Solomon. These collections are complemented by a significant library and archive.

We are currently in the process of digitising our collections information and creating an online database. Our thematic programme, Life in the Living Room 1600 - 2000, funded by the London Museums Hub, went online in July 2008. The first phase of our major project, Search the Collections, is scheduled for completion in January 2009.