Sheraton's chairs of his early best period are constructed in exactly the same way as those of Heppelwhite. The splat does not reach the seat even when a solid urn reminds one of the jar-shaped splats of Chippendale. His backs are very frequently composed of four, five, or seven uprights, very slender and variously shaped. There is a tendency to place a greater amount of ornament upon them than is the case with Heppelwhite, to whom two or three wheat-ears or a few depending husks seem often a perfectly adequate supply. Whilst he uses the drapery festoons and the serrated leaves of the former, Sheraton gives us also cupids, either whole-length or ending in acanthus-leaved terminal shapes, which require a considerable amount of execution, either in carving or in paint. Sheraton supplied a good number of designs for the latter style, as the descriptions will show (Plate CXXXVII.). One plate alone contains a dozen backs for painted chairs. Sheraton makes even a greater use of turned work than Heppelwhite, who himself is differentiated from Chippendale in this respect. It might perhaps be safe to say that the turned work of Heppelwhite is chiefly confined to legs of tables and chairs and sofas.

Plate CXXXVII.

I - Arm-Chair Of Beech

2 - Arm-Chair, Painted And Gilt

3 - „ „ Of Beech, Painted And Gilt Sheraton

4 - " " " "

CXXXVII. (1) Armchair, of beech, painted dark green and gilt. On the back a trophy of musical instruments, a group of flowers and bands of floral ornament. The painting has been restored. V. & A. M.

Dimensions: Height 33¼, Breadth 22⅛, Depth from front to back 18⅜ inches.

(2) Armchair, painted and gilt. Mr. G. E.

Hemmons.

(3) Armchair, of beech, painted and gilt.

Sheraton. V. & A. M.

(4) Armchair, of beech, painted and gilt.

Sheraton. V. & A. M.

In Sheraton's designs it is not uncommon on the outer uprights of chair-backs and on legs of sideboards (Plates CXXXIX.3, cxl.). Whilst he gives one or two excellent versions of shield-back chairs - the special prerogative of Heppelwhite - Sheraton shares with Flaxman and the Adams a shape for chair-backs and table supports reminiscent of the lyre, and sometimes so imitative of it as to reproduce the strings in brass (Plate CXXXVI.I). This is one of his successes, borrowed by him and the others, no doubt, as so many ideas were, from the French style of Louis XVI., where the fancy showed itself in the popular lyre-shaped clock. Few chairs, on the other hand, can be uglier than his peculiar invention of the Conversation Chair. This design pandered either to the inordinate length of coat tails, or to a freedom of manner which has mostly passed out of use. The idea was that the occupier should sit astride with his face to the back, thus avoiding the difficulty of bestowing his skirts. The seat was made narrower at the back so as to be convenient for the legs, and the top of the back was quite a small table upon which the sitter might fold his arms.

Plate CXXXVI. I - Lyre-Back Arm-Chair, Mahogany Sheraton

CXXXVI. (1) Lyre-back Armchair, mahogany. Sheraton. V. & A. M.

(2) Armchair. One of a pair, mahogany. Sheraton. The property of the author.

Dimensions : Height 36 , Breadth 22¼, Depth from front to back 21½ inches.

In these chairs alone does the splat come down, or nearly down, to the seat, presumably on account of the extra strain to which it was supposed it might be subject. In these two examples of the lyre-back and the conversation chair we have Sheraton at once reaping the reward and paying the penalty of a versatile nature. Heppelwhite seldom, if ever, makes a failure - though some of his shield-shapes are much less graceful than others - but then his narrow range impresses us with a sense of his timidity.

The arms of Sheraton's chair sweep downwards towards their supports with the same easy curve, beginning rather high up the back, as is found in his rival's designs. This method of placing the arms high up is one reason why the chairs of Sheraton and Heppelwhite, though so much lighter than Chippendale's, have yet stood the test of time. The arms give that support to the back which Chippendale relied on the splat to afford. Sheraton and Heppelwhite both use the small upholstered block in the centre of the arm upon which the hands or the elbows were supposed to rest. I cannot but regard this as a rather unhappy invention. This peddling little bit of upholstery tends to shabbiness, and is unnecessary for comfort in a well-designed chair.

Another characteristic of Sheraton is his penchant for draperies. There is a charming cylinder desk and bookcase upon long tapering legs, in wnich the awkward junction of the cylinder curve with the low bookcase is avoided by having a concave curve to serve as a plinth to the bookcase. The glass panes are simply divided into four squares in each folding door. At the junction of the dividing lines in the centre is a rosetted diamond. There is no cornice, but an architrave on which appears a continuous series of semi-circles reminding us of the old oak motive mentioned so often before. The curves of these semi-circles are repeated in reverse by draperies inside each glass door. These are caught up so as to make four segments of a circle in all. This is exactly one of those happy little touches of design which show Sheraton's genuine originality. We may not approve of too liberal a use of draperies, but when they are so daintily employed as here, there is certainly something to be said for them. Failure, however, attends it in a very tall 'Bookcase and Writing Drawers.' Here the whole of the glass bookcase is concealed by perpendicular pleated stuff, and, as before, there are two pairs of festoons at the top.

But in this case the festoons are more elaborate, with long, loose-falling ends, and there are no semi-circles or segments of circles in the woodwork above to form an answering shape. The result is that, as in so much of Sheraton's later work, we are oppressed by a sense of too much upholstery. The next step, one expects, will be the entire elimination of woodwork, and an adjournment of the furniture designer from the cabinetmaker's to the draper's shop.