John Martin Robinson
After completing an architectural history thesis at Oxford in 1974 John Martin Robinson joined the Historic Buildings Division of the GLC and later worked for the London Division of English Heritage. As senior casework officer for the Westminster area he oversaw the restoration of many important buildings, including Crewe House in Mayfair, now the Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia, and Spencer House, St. James's, headquarters of J. Rothschild Holdings, and was also involved in wider conservation schemes in Covent Garden, Soho, and other large-scale developments of historic interest. He worked for a period as architectural editor of the Survey of London on the volumes dealing with Mayfair and South Kensington, and in an honorary capacity has advised on the restoration of the London Oratory, the Travellers Club, and Abbot Hall Art Gallery, Kendal.
As archivist and librarian to the Duke of Norfolk he has been closely involved in the restoration of Carlton Towers and Arundel Castle and has also written guidebooks to these houses, as well as to Windsor Castle and Buckingham Palace. His other published work includes numerous books on architecture and related subjects, including the much-acclaimed Latest Country Houses, The Wyatts, An Architectural Dynasty, and A Guide to the Country Houses of the North-West.
John Martin Robinson is Vice-Chairman of the Georgian Group. He is Maltravers Herald and co-author of the Oxford Guide to Heraldry.
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Joseph Friedman
After graduating from Cambridge in art and architectural history in 1982, Joseph Friedman was commissioned by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to assist with the restoration of the Hotel de Charost in Paris, residence of the British Ambassador to France. In the course of this project he produced a detailed architectural history and survey of the building, together with a catalogue of the historic contents, including the Bonaparte-Borghese collection of First Empire furniture and bronzes.
In 1985 Joseph Friedman was commissioned by J. Rothschild Holdings to produce an historical report on Spencer House, St James's, originally built in the mid-18th century as the London residence of the 1st Earl Spencer by John Vardy and James 'Athenian' Stuart. His work served as the basis of the restoration of the state apartments, now open to the public. For the National Trust he advised on the restoration of Castle Coole, County Fermanagh, originally built for the 1st Earl Belmore by James Wyatt in the 1790s, with interiors decorated and furnished in the Regency period by the 2nd Earl Belmore. He was subsequently appointed curator of the former residence of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor in Paris, and oversaw the cataloguing and conservation of the contents, as well as the restoration of the historic interiors and the creation of a suite of exhibition rooms.
In 1988, in partnership with architectural historian John Martin Robinson, he set up Historic Buildings Consultants. While continuing as a Director of the company, Joseph Friedman was recruited by Sotheby's in 1993 and in 1996 was appointed head of English Furniture and a Senior Director of Sotheby's UK. In 1999 he returned to Historic Buildings Consultants full time and subsequently established a new division, Historic Buildings Consultants (Fine Arts) Ltd specialising in the sale and acquisition of works of art, antiques, and other cultural assets.
Joseph Friedman has published widely on the fine and decorative arts. His books include Spencer House. Chronicle of a Great London Mansion (Zwemmer, 1993); Inside London: Discovering London's Period Interiors (Phaidon, 1988); Inside Paris: Discovering the Period Interiors of Paris (Phaidon, 1989); Inside New York: Discovering New York's Classic Interiors (Phaidon, 1992); Inside Rome: Discovering the Period Interiors of Rome (Phaidon, 1993); The Private World of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor [with Hugo Vickers] (1995); Paint and Colour in Decoration (Farrow & Ball / Cassell, 2003); and Treasure Houses of London. Five Hundred Years of Private Artistic Patronage and Collecting (Yale University Press, forthcoming). Articles and essays include 'Spencer House', Apollo, CXXVI, no. 306 (August 1987); 'The Town Houses', in Sir William Chambers. Architect to George III, edited by John Harris and Michael Snodin (Yale University Press & The Courtauld Gallery, 1996); and 'New Light on the Renishaw Commode', Furniture History. The Journal of The Furniture History Society, XXXIII (1997). Guide Books include The British Embassy, Paris (privately printed, 1985); Vaux-le-Vicomte (transl., 1985); Musee Conde, Chantilly (transl., 1985); The Residence of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, Paris (privately printed, 1992).
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