Next to Chippendale the name most familiar to the ordinary buyer or collector of old English furniture, is that of Thomas Sheraton. He was apparently a well-educated man, but from the rather didactic phraseology of "The Cabinet Maker and Upholsterer's Drawing Book," which was published by him in 1793, one gathers that he was a man who had risen from the ranks, and prided himself on his self-acquired knowledge. That he was an excellent draughtsman is without doubt, and in a rather verbose lecture on the laws of geometry and the five orders of architecture, he claimed to base all his designs on geometrical science. The book contains elaborate directions for perspective drawing, and his diagrams are as carefully finished as an engineer's plans, drawn to scale with mathematical nicety and precision.

How far he himself carried out his own designs is not known, nor have I been able to ascertain where he carried on business. When I was engaged in writing my " Illustrated History of Furniture," Mr. Black, of the publishing firm of A. and C. Black, Soho Square, told me that his grandfather, Mr. Adam Black, had, when quite a young man, assisted Sheraton in the production of his book, and that at the time the famous designer was in such poor circumstances, as to be obliged to raise money by giving drawing lessons.

ENGLISH BUREAU BOOKCASE LATE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.

"SHIELD BACK " CHAIRS, DESIGNED BY SHERATON OR HEPPELWHITE.

From this it is pretty evident that he must have been in a very small way of business, and it will probably be somewhat of a shock to many amateurs of old English furniture, to learn that Sheraton was chiefly a designer and draughtsman. He was also a zealous Baptist, and published several books and pamphlets advocating his religious views. Besides his "Drawing Book" he also published in 1803 "The Cabinet Dictionary," explaining all the terms used by the "cabinet, chair, and upholsterers' branches," and he was engaged on "The Cabinet Maker and Artists' Encyclopaedia" when he died in 1806 in Broad Street, Soho, leaving his family in distressed circumstances.

As regards the designs of his chairs, they are practically so similar to many of those of Heppel-white, that unless we had their respective books for identification it would be impossible to tell the one from the other. Both include the "shield" back with the Prince of Wales's feather ornament, and those with drapery festoons and" vase " centres. The Prince of Wales's feather, by the way, indicated something besides mere decoration; it was the badge of the young Court party as led by the Prince of Wales, afterwards George IV.

The designs of Sheraton's marqueterie were somewhat similar to those of Heppelwhite, chiefly composed of mahogany and satinwood, but he depended more upon the excellent choice of his veneers, than upon elaborate ornament for his effects. His drawings indicate this, because the figure of the wood is shown by shaded lines. A characteristic feature of his cabinet designs, was the graceful " swan-necked " pediment surmounting the cornice of wardrobe, bookcase or cabinet. The sideboard of mahogany, banded with satin-wood having fan pattern ornaments inlaid, the ends being rounded, supported by tapering legs, is a very familiar design, and also the handsome brass rails which were fixed at the back and held a silk curtain to serve as a background to the silver, or ornaments standing on the board. Some of these brass rails were very handsome and supported a circular convex mirror in the centre, also branches for candles. Of the two urns which stood on the sideboard, one contained the silver-mounted knives, forks and spoons for use, and the other was fitted with a tap and held water for cleansing them - this operation being apparently carried on in the room while the family was at dinner. They are graceful accessories, and were beautifully made, the alternate flutings of mahogany and satinwood being very carefully finished. Instead of these urns, knife cases were sometimes, or rather more generally, used. Most collectors know these quaintly-shaped boxes, made in mahogany or satinwood, inlaid with shell ornaments, and of late years converted into spirit cases or holders for stationery.

A SIDE TABLE DESIGNED BY T. SHERATON, ABOUT 1795. SHOWING THE WELL-CHOSEN VENEERS, WITH BUT A SLIGHT INLAY OF BANDING AND THE "HUSK" ORNAMENT.

Sheraton also designed a great many of the mechanical tables fashionable at the time. "A cylinder wash-hand table," besides the circular revolving front from which it derives its name, and which concealed the basin when shut, had a toilet glass which rose with a spring and a catch. From the sides were drawn out a bidet and water drawer. Some of his reading and writing tables had a number of adjustable slides and drawers with neatly contrived fittings.

The preface of his book contains severe strictures upon the want of perspective in the drawings of Chippendale and Heppelwhite, and particularly of those published by the "Society of Cabinet makers in London," to which it is thought that Chippendale, Man waring, Johnson and others belonged.

By the light of recent events, when a couple of chairs by Chippendale have been sold at Christie's for a thousand guineas, it is amusing to quote Sheraton on page 9 of the preface of a book written within, say, ten or fifteen years of his rival's death. "Chippendale's book has, it is true, given us the proportion of the Five Orders, and lines for two or three cases, which is all it pretends to, relative to rules for drawing; and as for the designs themselves, they are now wholly antiquated and laid aside, though possessed of great merit, according to the times in which they were executed."

Then, dealing with the designs of Ince and Mayhew, he says, "The designs in cabinets and chairs are of course of the same cast, and have therefore suffered the same fate (been wholly laid aside), in the cabinet branch according to the present taste, yet in justice to the work it may be said to have been a book of merit in its day, though inferior to Chippendale's, which was a real original, as well as more masterful and extensive in its designs."

DOUBLE CHEST OF DRAWERS OR "TALL BOY," ABOUT THE END OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY, MADE BY SEVERAL MANUFACTURERS (included in Heppelwhite's designs).

Of Sheraton's later work from 1800 until his death six years afterwards, something will be said in the following chapter. He caught the fashionable epidemic of the Napoleonic fashion, and some of his bad English copies of the First Empire patterns do not enhance his reputation as a designer. In my "Illustrated History of Furniture" I have been able to give a much larger selection both from his and from Heppelwhite's designs than the limited space admits in this work. Both men have left their mark upon the furniture of English design and manufacture of the time corresponding to the period of Marie Antoinette in France. They show a similar spirit of grace and refinement, a relief from the baroque and flamboyant styles of Chippendale and his school, which corresponded to the rococo taste prevalent in France during the latter part of the reign of Louis XV.