S. Woolfield & Co.

S. Woolfield & Co., Jewellers, Dressing-case Makers, and Importers of Fancy Foreign Goods, 66, Buchanan Street.—

    Men now grown grey can remember how they feasted boyish eyes on the great fancy emporium which is still conducted under the style of S. Woolfield & Co., jewellers, dressing-case makers, and importers of foreign fancy goods, at 66, Buchanan Street, Glasgow. It was in other premises, however, at the corner of the Argyle Arcade, that the elderly and middle-aged of to-day viewed the wondrous show, still more wonderful now in the spacious showroom to which Messrs. Woolfield removed some six years gone by. The business was established fifty-eight years ago, and was the first of its kind in Glasgow. The old style of the firm has been retained throughout, but Mr. George Burns is now sole proprietor.

    The showroom is large, extending a long way back, and most handsomely fitted in unison with the tempting array of nice and costly things there exhibited. The stock embraces such endless variety that it is not easy to give a general idea of it further than to say it embraces all that is novel, elegant, and beautiful, in things useful, curious, and ornamental. A few leading lines may be specified : all the minutiae of toilette requisites and perfumery, pocket cutlery, and pocket stationery, albums, portfolios, card cases, fans, fruit knives, brushes of all kinds, table mats and napkin rings, fancy trays and boxes, bronzes, Bohemian glass, alabaster sculpture, ivory carved work, &c. The specialties are desks, dressing-cases, and jewel-boxes, which are displayed with every variety of fittings, from the costliest complete equipments to the more modest but highly useful articles which suit customers of moderate means, for all classes can be satisfied at Messrs. Woolfield’s great emporium.

    The various appliances for games are a notable feature, and there is no means of pursuing amusements of skill or chance which is awanting, and no taste but can be gratified. The cricketer and the football player can be fully equipped both for attack and defence ; chess, draught, and card-players will find everything ready to their hand in every variety of make and style ; indoor and outdoor bowling, curling, croquet, and target practice are provided for ; while the heaps of appliances for the quieter amusements of the drawing-room, as round games in their different orders, simply baffle enumeration.

    The amateur conjuror can have all the necessary paraphernalia for making his young friends stare with wonder, and the parlour demonstrator of the curiosities of science can be supplied with the needful materials and appliances. Then the toy department is one in which Messrs. Woolfield manifest that excellence which is only to be compassed by the experience of many years ; and the boys and girls who visit it are quite dazzled by the great wealth aud variety of the show. While importing extensively from the best fancy goods markets of France, Germany, and Italy, Messrs. Woolfield manufacture a considerable portion of their goods in workrooms below their showroom. The articles thus produced are of special value, and among them are all the games appliances for the Cunard line of steamships, which it will easily be understood require to be of first-class quality.

    Here, too, they produce writing desks, dressing-cases, jewel boxes, pocket books, and every description of cabinet or leather cases to order, and execute repairs on all sorts of cabinet ware, so improving what is worn and faded that they are made to resemble new goods. They also repair all kinds of jewellery, jet articles, fans, Parisian gilt bijouterie, &c. Messrs. Woolfield’s reputation as dealers in articles which minister mainly to the pleasures and luxuries of life is of such lengthened and high standing that they have customers on their books who formed the connection forty years ago, and from whom they constantly receive orders for special articles made up on the premises. The mart is always crowded at the Christmas and other present-bestowing seasons, and both donors and recipients are abundantly pleased with the immense choice there displayed.

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