In 1840, George Adams joined the business that was founded in 1815 by William Chawner II (who was apprenticed to William Fearn in 1797). Free in 1804, he entered his first mark as spoon maker in 1808 in partnership with William Eley and William Fearn. The partnership was dissolved c. 1814 and William Chawner II entered his first mark alone in 1815. After his death (1834) the business was continued by his widow Mary (née Burwash). Later, Mary Chawner took into partnership (1840) her son-in-law George William Adams (husband of her daughter Mary Ann), who, after her retirement (or death) managed the business as Chawner & Co and remained sole partner until 1883. In this year, Chawner & Co was sold to Holland, Aldwinckle & Slater (1883 - 1922, when the firm was absorbed by Francis Higgins & Son Ltd). Chawner was the most important manufacturer of spoons and forks in London and participated in the 1851 Great Exhibition and the 1862 International Exhibition.Their pattern book (c. 1875) is the reference for naming many of the patterns manufactured in the Victorian era. Chawner & Co were suppliers of important retail houses as Hunt & Roskell, R.& S. Garrard & Co, Elkington & Co (in most cases they overstruck the pieces with their own mark).