Dr Stone, an Exeter pharmacist, developed Stone’s in Devon in 1760 as a pure polish for furniture. It is still made today using the same traditional formula from the finest Beeswax with no silicone and is trusted by collectors and restorers around the world.
166 Fore Street in Exeter, Devon, England was the first location for the headquarters and factory of Stone's of Exeter since about 1760. A photograph taken in about 1900 shows a production line producing a large quantity of the polish. At that time it was probably the only manufactured polish on the market. Hilda Stone and cousin Alan were the last members of the family to own and manage the business. They were both well known and respected in the West Country. In 1942 the building, along with much of Exeter was destroyed by bombing.
The company moved manufacture out of town. Hilda and Alan soon retired passing the business on to their employees as neither had any family of their own. In about 1960 the business was sold to Jackson's, a local manufacturing chemist, who by 1990 had become a small part of the multinational Cadbury Schweppes. Furniture polish did not blend with the production of cough sweets, and so production ceased. Louisa Wagg asked a friend, who was the production manager, if there was any stock left as the polish was no longer available in the shops. The answer came back that there was no stock available but if she sent her husband around they would teach him how to make it. David Wagg took on production and in the 1990s Christopher Chanter became a partner and continued production. In 2016 Rustins acquired Stone’s.