Ralph Grynder

Grynder was an apprentice of the Draper's Company in 1605. Later, he lived and worked at the sign of the Lion in the Poultry, London.^[2] Possibly, Grynder was a Catholic.^[3] Upholsterers supplied new furniture to aristocrat's houses and were the major figures in interior decoration.^[4] Grynder and other tradesmen were questioned in the Court of Chancery about the possessions of William Cecil, 16th Baron Ros in 1617.^[5]

He worked with the silkman Benjamin Henshawe in the 1620s, making beds, couches, chairs, and cushions.^[6] When Henrietta Maria came to England in 1625 as the bride of Charles I, she was accompanied by the Duke and Duchess of Chevreuse.^[7] Their lodgings were furnished with pieces hired from Grynder.^[8]

Grynder supplied green cotton matting and 2,000 black tacks to cover the floor of a room at Somerset House for a masque in 1626 which involved a performance by Jeffrey Hudson.^[9] The cloth was used to muffle noise. Grynder features as a supplier in later accounts for Henrietta Maria's masques and pastorals, including The Shepherd's Paradise.^[10]

In 1628, Grynder was asked to appraise the inventory of the Jesuit College in Clerkenwell, London. The inventory was taken by Justinian Povey, a royal auditor, and George Longe.^[11]

He made couches for Henrietta Maria in the 1630s and these were supplied with suites of matching chairs and stools with a canopy suspended above. These commissions can be associated with the surviving Knole sofa.^[12] Grynder's bills include:

For making a lardge couch bedd of figured velvett with two heades the seat being fitted on with staples and garnished round with fringes & ovr. styles and feete, £3-0-0.
For workmanship in making a Lardge Couch chayre of brancht velvett being covered all over on rayles styles and feete with 2 cushion winges garnished with silver fringes, £4-0-0.^[13]

Grynder may have worked with the joiner Charles Godeliere,^[14] who was a member of the French Church at Threadneedle Street.^[15] Other furniture makers and suppliers to court circles at this time include John Baker and Oliver Browne. Some furniture was painted by the sergeant painter John de Critz or specialists like Thomas Capp and the gilder Philip Bromefield.^[16][17]

Grynder provided a fringe of "Turkey orange of worsted" for the bed curtains of the bed of Little Sarah, a servant of Henrietta Maria, and a bed with a "round French canopy" for Jeffrey Hudson. In 1632, his two workmen were employed at Somerset House putting up a bed.^[18] He supplied "French chairs" to the Queen's House at Greenwich in 1637, upholstered with figured velvet and silver fringes,^[19] and used trimmings supplied by William Geere.^[20] In June 1640, Rachel Bourchier, Countess of Bath bought nails supplied by "Mr Grinder".^[21]

Dorothy Sidney, Countess of Leicester, as the wife of the English ambassador in Paris, was involved in the bespeaking of beds provided for Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford. She recommended that Ralph Grynder's workshop supply the woodwork of the beds and the matching suites of chairs and stools, because he was "the best in that trade".^[22]

He worked for the Earl of Antrim and his wife, Katherine Villiers, Duchess of Buckingham, in 1638 and 1639.^[23] They owed him £761-18s.^[24] An inventory of their furniture from Dunluce Castle includes couches and beds possibly supplied by Grynder. Furniture for Duchess in previous years was supplied by her wardrobe keeper Thomas Lovett.^[25] Their debt to Grynder remained outstanding, and in 1660, Mary Grinder, probably his widow, signed a joint petition for payment.^[26] His first wife, Anne Grinder, had committed suicide in 1626 after losing her child. She was buried at St Stephen Coleman Street. He had a son, Ralph Grynder junior, also a member of the draper's company.^[27]