Chairmaker
Lucraft became one of the most famous chair-carvers of his generation and stayed at this trade until well past retiring age, turning out chairs which were admired at many exhibitions.
His son, George Seely Lucraft, set up the company G S Lucraft and Co Ltd. on City Road in London and employed his father as a chair-carver. This arrangement gave Lucraft the freedom to follow his political career. George Seely Lucraft followed his father in the furniture trade and was also active in radical politics, among other things being the chairman of the committee to promote the Labour candidate for the London School Board in succession to his father in 1890. George later was active in Liberal-Labour politics, being the agent for a London borough.
The company designed and sold a range of furniture and supplied the well-known retailers such as Maples, Robert Gillow and Heals (department store). It was not the English custom to always sign work and so it is not possible to find many identifiable examples of his work.
On one occasion Queen Victoria attended an exhibition and admired one of his chairs, commenting to him in person about their excellence. There is one domestic chair known to have been made by him in the possession of a descendant.
A chair was made by Lucraft at the request of the Liberal Party (UK) when they wished to honour William Ewart Gladstone. It was presented to Gladstone by the liberals of the Borough of Greenwich and the Liberal Club of the neighbourhood on 17 August 1881. After some years research the chair was found again in a corner of the library at Hawarden Castle (18th century): the North Wales home of Gladstone. One of Lucraft's great great grandsons, Jack Edmonds Lucraft, arranged for it to be restored as it was in a very bedraggled condition. The irony is that the cabinet-maker made a chair for the Prime Minister who gave working men the vote after a time when the cabinet-maker had himself been called in parliament a "cabinet-breaker".
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