Extracts from Time Travellers - Cabinetmaker
If you want to know the measure of the MD of I & JL Brown you need only visit his local butcher. Such are the exacting standards of Ian Brown that on many occasions his local butcher will comment quietly: "The steak is not for you today Mr Brown," and that will be the end of the matter.
Meanwhile other customers will purchase, oblivious of the implications of the statement.
The tale is told as an aside over dinner but the simple story illustrates much of the philosophy behind the I & JL Brown operation.
The business is based on Mr Brown's passion for antique furniture and his particular speciality is chairs. Such is the knowledge of the man that he can not only wax lyrical about the history of hundreds of different designs but also often be able to name where they were made and by which particular craftsman.
It's all a far cry from his orginal career teaching rural studies in Hereford. However, anyone dealing with the company will quickly realise that neither side of the business can ever be described as amateur.
Visit the showroom at Whitestone, just outside Hereford, and customers can see the whole process from timber coming in to the end product of beautifully handcrafted reproduction models.
