Thank you all for being so welcoming.
And my apologies for blundering about your forum with big boots on. I am looking at all the businesses that were affected by the Great Fire of Clerkenwell (8 October 1885). There were at least 30 businesses and I keep coming up with more, ranging from bicycle manufacturers through toy wholesalers to boot makers. I'm trying to get a sense of what each business did, hence my interest in Henry Hebert and Chapman Son & Co (also trading as Middleton Chapman) both of whom took leases on parts of 2 Charterhouse Buildings, a three floor building (with floor area 30ft by 45 ft).
I have many references to Henry Herbert as a publisher of handbooks and "United States and Canadian Commercial Enquiry Office. Subscription £1/1/- for 4 enquiries, £2/2/- for 12 enquiries etc". I have many examples of advertisements from Chapman Son & Co stating they were "Wholesale and Export manufacturers and patentees of Travelling bags, Dressing cases. The Royal Cabinet of Games, Liqueur Cabinets and all kinds of Leather and Fancy cabinet Goods" as well as examples of the kind of glass containers that I posted earlier. Additionally, there are quite a number of advertisements from Chapman Son & Co seeking people with jobs such as "Dressing case makers", "Polishers (good French)", "A lad used to French polishing", "Apprentice to Dressing Case lining" etc
Form this I deduce that Chapman Son & Co made dressing cases (like the attached example). These would appear to be lined wooden boxes containing various items - glass bottles, combs etc. Further, from the evidence above I assume that Chapman Son & Co made the cases themselves and perhaps bought in the other items although the hall-marked silver parts of the glass bottles would suggest that the company also made up some of the contents of the cases
Anyway all I'm trying to do is to sort all that out in light of the record unearthed at The National Archives. That's all! Thanks for all your help
Peter
Mod: Click here for a Google Image search result for a Vanity Box with a Middleton Chapman connection. It is a Pinterest image which may not display for all readers, so the Google Image result is given instead. Peter's copy of one of the actual souce images has been removed because of Board Policy on use of 3rd party images.