Thomas Sheraton, an English journeyman cabinet-maker, settled in London about 1790. From that date until his death in 1806, he seems to have stopped working at his trade and to have spent his time writing practical books on furniture. His first publication, The Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer’s Drawing-Book, appeared in 1791; but he had previously published eighty-four Designs for Furniture. In 1803, he issued The Cabinet Dictionary; and in 1804–7, The Cabinet-Maker, Upholsterer and General Artist’s EncyclopÆdia appeared.

How many of the models in Sheraton’s books are his own it is hard to tell. He claims very few of them, and remarks in the Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer’s Drawing-Book that “it is intended to exhibit the present taste of furniture and at the same time to give the workman some assistance in the manufacture of it.” Sheraton, like Chippendale, whose “designs,” he says, “are now wholly antiquated and laid aside, though possessed of great merit according to the times in which they were executed,” and like Heppelwhite also, therefore exhibits the fashions of his time—fashions that came from France. From what he himself writes, it would seem that he gathered designs from various sources and worked for popularity. He says:

“In conversing with cabinet-makers, I find no one individual equally experienced in every job of work. There are certain pieces made in one shop which are not manufactured in another, on which account the best of workmen are sometimes strangers to particular pieces of furniture. For this reason, I have made it my business to apply to the best workmen in different shops to obtain their assistance in the explanation of such pieces as they have been most acquainted with. And, in general, my request has been complied with, from the generous motive of making the book as generally useful as possible.”

He then informs the reader of “the difficult task I have had to please all.... I find some have expected such designs as never were seen, heard of, nor conceived in the imagination of man; whilst others have wanted them to suit a broker’s shop, to save them the trouble of borrowing a bason-stand to shew to a customer. Some have expected it to furnish a country wareroom, to avoid the expense of making up a good bureau and double chest-of-drawers, with canted corners, etc., and though it is difficult to conceive how these different qualities could be united in a book of so small a compass, yet, according to some reports, the broker himself may find his account in it, and the country master will not be altogether disappointed; whilst others say many of the designs are rather calculated to shew what may be done, than to exhibit what is or has been done in the trade. According to this, the designs turn out to be on a more general plan than what I intended them, and answer, beyond my expectation, the above various descriptions of subscribers. However, to be serious, it was my first plan, and has been my aim through the whole, to make the book in general as permanently useful as I could, and to unite with usefulness the taste of the times.”

This taste changed gradually from the Louis XVI. style to that of the Empire. Sheraton, consequently, covers these two periods. Sheraton had his own tastes and his own ideas, however, and his books are full of his individual fancies and instructions. He was a great admirer of carving. When we read: “Having possessed a strong attachment and inclination for carving in my youth, I was necessarily induced to make attempts in this art, and on succeeding in some degree, I was employed in the country occasionally in it,” this explains the many graceful designs that he gives for carved splats and bannisters of chairs. He was also fond of inlaid and painted furniture, and greatly liked the new fashion of inlaying with brass, especially for black woods. Satin wood, too, particularly of a “fine straw colour,” which has a “cool, light and pleasing effect in furniture,” he also admired, and thought tulip-wood and zebra-wood (of the “scarce brown and white streaked variety”), beautiful for cross-banding.

Mahogany he uses for dining-room, library and bedroom furniture, and for chairs with carved backs. He brightens much of his mahogany with such brass ornaments, as handles, key-plates, columns, rails and claw-feet, and often inlays it with a few small lines of brass, as he does rosewood. Rosewood he recommends for choice pieces, such as work-tables, secretaries, etc. Brass beads is another form of ornament that he likes to use. The straight line appears in the forms of the Sheraton furniture. The chair leg is frequently reeded, or turned and decorated with twisted flutes and fillets. The tambour shutter Sheraton makes much use of, and he likes to introduce all kinds of mechanical devices into his furniture.

Among his favourite ornaments are the husk, or bell-flower, the swag, or festoon, the column, the lyre, the lotus, the acanthus, the urn, the vase and the patera, the latter being used especially to hide the screws of beds and joining of chair-frames (see Plate LXIII. and Nos. 10 and 11, Plate LXII.). Like Chippendale, he gives an immense number of book-case doors composed of panes arranged in ornamental designs, and behind these he flutes green silk curtains. During his last period, the wire door appears for commodes, cabinets and other pieces.

Sheraton’s drawing-room furniture was of white and gold, of satin-wood, wood painted and japanned, or of rosewood. The coverings for the drawing-room chairs were silk or satin, the designs being stripes or the oval medallion. In 1803, he advocates cane.

Sheraton has very little to say about textiles or colours. He speaks of printed cottons, and silks and taffeta of all colours, plain, striped, checked, flowered and mixed with gold and silver. The only colour about which he has any thing to say is blue: “Blue and white, blue and black, very light blue and yellow will harmonize. Blue kills some colours; and on which account before any be used to join with another colour, they should be compared together; and if the more brilliant colour to which it is joined becomes therefore less vivid, some other colour should be chosen.”

He gives many directions, however, regarding the arrangement of rooms.

“As the entrance, or hall, of any well built house ought always to be expressive of the dignity of its possessor, so the furniture ought to be designed in a manner adapted to inform the stranger, or visitant, where they are, and what they may expect on a more general survey of every apartment.

“As the hall is a general, or ought to be a general opening to all the principal apartments, it should be furnished so as not to be mistaken for the most superb division of the structure, or where they may expect to meet the nobler person who resides in it. The furniture of a hall should therefore be bold, massive and simple: yet noble in appearance and introductory to the rest.”

It is interesting to note that the Adam stucco-work has had its day and that there is a return to the Boucher treatment of the ceiling. Sheraton remarks: “Plastered ceilings are supposed to be more common in Britain than in other countries. The manner of finishing ceilings has been various, at different times, in this country. A sort of very heavy ornamented plaster work was formerly introduced, together with pannelled work in heavy mouldings. Within about thirty years since, this kind of ceiling work has been composed in a much lighter style, and variegated with painted panels, often from the heathen mythology, or other poetical subjects. At present some of the most elegant rooms have no plastered ornaments in their ceilings, but are painted to imitate an open sky, with some faint scattering of clouds.”

The walls were hung with paper.

The window generally reached to the floor, with small panes of glass, from four to eight in a sash. The window was also furnished with a blind. “The most fashionable blinds,” Sheraton assures us, “are of wood painted green all except the frame which is of mahogany. The blind part is either composed of upright or horizontal narrow laths ? of an inch thick painted a bright green and which move by means of a lever to any position for admitting more or less light.”

The cornice was painted and japanned, or carved and gilded, and from it hung the draperies.

“Festoon window-curtains,” says Sheraton, “are those which draw up by pullies, and hang down in a swag. These curtains are still in use in bedrooms, not withstanding the general introduction of the French rod curtain in most genteel houses. A festoon window-curtain consists generally of three pulls, but when a window is extensive they have four or five.”

An example of the French rod is shown on Plate LIX., No. 1, dated 1803. Sheraton says: “The French window rod is made of brass about ¾ of an inch diameter, having a pulley at the left end and two at the right, one of which is fixed on a pin perpendicular to the rod. At present, they frequently make the French rods of satin wood two to a window to lap past each other about three inches in the centre; so that the curtain draws half on each side separately, or only half of it may be drawn at once; and when they are both drawn out they lap over each other.” The chimney is invariably furnished with a glass. Sheraton says:

“In elegant rooms, the chimney-glass is usually carried to the under side of the cornice of the ceiling; but to reduce the expense of the plate, sometimes a broadish panel is introduced at the top of the glass with a frieze and cornice above all, included in the frame of the glass.

“The most generally approved pilasters for chimney and pier-glasses are those of 3, 5, or 7 reeds, worked bold; but which, in my opinion, still look better by being parted with a ground one-third of the width of the reed which may be matted to relieve the burnished reeds. It is not unusual to have a twisting branch of flowers, or a ribband round the reeds rising upwards, and terminating in some sort of Composite, Corinthian, or Ionic capital. The panel above the glass is sometimes made quite plain and covered with silk as a ground for drapery, tacked under the cornice of the glass to match that of the windows.”

“Glasses for chimney-pieces run various, according to the size of the fire-place, and the height of the wall above. To save expense, they are sometimes fitted up in three plates, and the joints of the glass covered with small gilt mouldings or pilasters. At other times with the naked joint only. When they are of one plate, the frame in general is made bolder and more elegant.”

The floor is completely covered with a carpet having a border which has to be neatly mitred at the corners.

“The kitchen, the hall, the dining-parlour, the ante-room, the dining-room, the library, the breakfast-room, the music-room, the gallery of paintings, the bedroom and dressing apartments, ought to have their proper suits of furniture, and to be finished in a style, that will at once, show, to a competent judge, the place they are destined for.

“The library should be finished in imitation of the antiques; and such prints as are hung in the walls ought to be memorials of learning, and portraits of men of science and erudition.

“The music-room may be conducted in a more gay style; and the paintings or prints of the muses and masters of music may consistently make a part of furnishing; and chairs and stools of a richer variety of colours may be admitted with propriety.”

“The ante-room is an introduction to the drawing-room and partakes of the elegance of the apartment to which it leads, serving as a place of repose before the general intercourse be effected in the whole company. Here may be placed a number of sofas of a second order with a pianoforte or harp or other matters of amusements till the whole of the company be collected.

“The tea-room, or breakfast-room, may abound with beaufets, painted chairs, flower-pot stands, hanging bookshelves or moving libraries and the walls may be adorned with landscapes and pieces of drawings, etc., and all the little things which are engaging to the juvenile mind.

“The lodging-room admits of furniture simply necessary, but light in appearance, and should include such pieces as are necessary for the accidental occasions of the night. Here should be a small book-shelf with such books as should tend to promote our pious resignation of body and soul to the care of the great author of the universe and divine superintendent of human happiness.

“The dressing-room exhibits the toilet-table and commode with all the affairs requisite to dress as bason stands, stools, glasses, and boxes with all the innocent trifles of youth.

“The drawing-room is to concentrate the elegance of the whole house, and is the highest display of richness of furniture. It being appropriated to the formal visits of the highest in rank, and nothing of a scientific nature should be introduced to take up the attention of any individual, from the general conversation that takes place on such occasions. Hence, the walls should be free of pictures, the tables not lined with books, nor the angles of the room filled with globes; as the design of such meetings are not that each visitant should turn to his favourite study, but to contribute his part towards the amusement of the whole company. The grandeur then introduced into the drawing-room is not to be considered as the ostentatious parade of its proprietor; but the respect he pays to the rank of his visitants.” He also informs us that:

“The furniture used in a drawing-room are sofas, chairs to match, a commode, pier-tables, elegant fire-screens, large glasses, figures with lights in their hands and bronzes with lights on the cap of the chimney-piece, or on the pier-tables and commodes, and sometimes a mirror with lights fixed at the end of the room, or the side, as may best suit for the reflection or perspective representation of the room, on the surface of the mirror.”

“A drawing-room is of that sort which admits of the highest taste and elegance; in furnishing of which, workmen in every nation exert the utmost efforts of their genius. To assist me in what I have here shewn, I had the opportunity of seeing the Prince of Wales’s, the Duke of York’s, and other noblemen’s drawing-rooms. I have not followed any one in particular, but have furnished my ideas from the whole, with such particulars as I thought best suited to give a display of the present taste in fitting up such rooms.”

“In the drawing-room here (see Plate LVIII.), everything will appear easily understood to a workman in town, who is accustomed to see such apartments; but for a stranger, and those workmen who reside in the country, it will be proper to point out a few particulars.

“The pier tables have marble tops and gold frames or white and gold. The glasses are often made to appear to come down to the stretcher of the table; that is, a piece of glass is fixed in behind the pier table, separate from the upper glass, and by reflection makes the table appear double. The small piece of glass may be fixed either in the dado of the room, or on the frame of the table.

“The arches above the windows are merely artificial, being only wooden frames put up, strained with canvas; after which the same kind of stuff which the curtains are made of is formed to appear like a fan, and drapery tacked on to it.

“Panelling on the walls are done in paper with ornamental borders of various colours.

“The figures above the glasses are paintings in clare-obscure. The sofas are bordered off in three compartments, and covered with figured silk or satin. The ovals may be printed separately, and sewed on. These sofas may have cushions to fill their backs, together with bolsters at each end. In France, where their drawing-rooms are fitted up in the most splendid manner, they use a set of small and plainer chairs, reserving the others merely for ornament.

“The commode opposite the fire-place has four doors; its legs are intended to stand a little clear of the wings; and the top is marble to match the pier tables. In the frieze part of the commode is a tablet in the centre made of an exquisite composition in imitation of statuary marble. These are to be had of any figure, or on any subject, at Mr. Wedgewood’s, near Soho Square. They are let into the wood, and project a little forward. The commode should be painted to suit the furniture, and the legs and other parts in gold to harmonize with the sofas, tables, and chairs.”

“The dining-room is one of the principal apartments of a house, and ought always to be of a bold and an accommodating proportion. In noblemen’s dining-rooms, where the windows are all on the side opposite to the fires, there may then be a recess at each end of the room in which a sideboard may stand, with columns before it placed at the extremities, which produces a very august appearance and renders the service considerably more easy at dinner than where there is but one sideboard. The furniture of a dining-room ought to be bold, substantial and magnificent, in proportion to its dimensions.

“The dining-parlour must be furnished with nothing trifling, or which may seem unnecessary, it being appropriated for the chief repast, and should not be encumbered with any article that would seem to intrude on the accommodation of the guests. The large sideboard, inclosed or surrounded with Ionic pillars; the handsome and extensive dining-table; the respectable and substantial-looking chairs; the large face glass; the family portraits; the marble fire-places; and the Wilton carpet are the furniture that should supply the dining-room.”

The Prince of Wales’s dining-parlour in Carlton House is recommended as a good type.

“The Prince’s has five windows facing St. James’s Park. His windows are made to come down to the floor, which opens in two parts as a double door, leading to a large grass plot to walk in. If I remember right, there are pilasters between each window, but this is intended to have grass. In his is a large glass over the chimney-piece. To these glass frames are fixed candle branches. At each end is a large sideboard, nearly twelve feet in length, standing between a couple of Ionic columns, worked in composition to imitate fine variegated marble, which have a most beautiful and magnificent effect. In the middle are placed a large range of dining-tables, standing on pillars with four claws each, which is now the fashionable way of making these tables. The chairs are of mahogany, made in the style of the French, with broad top rails hanging over each back foot; the legs are turned, and the seats covered with red leather.”

The curtains are “of the French kind.”

“Many dining-rooms of the first nobility have, however, only two columns and one sideboard, and those of less note have no columns.”

Correct drawing-room seats are shown on Plate LXII. The central one is purely Louis XVI. in style, painted in any colour and is covered with silk, but Sheraton recommends that the chair-frame be “finished in burnished gold, the seat and back covered with printed silk. In the front rail is a tablet with a little carving in its panels. The legs and stumps have twisted flutes and fillets done in the turning, which produce a good effect in the gold.”

Another parlour arm-chair, which he says can be made of carved mahogany or of black rosewood and gold, “will produce a lively effect,” particularly if “a brass beading is put round the stuffing to hide the tacks.” Specimen backs of chairs that may be of carved mahogany or painted are shown on Plate LXII., Nos. 1 to 9. These are dated 1792, Nos. 10 and 11 are specimen chair legs.

“It appears from some of the latest specimens of French chairs, some of which we have been favoured with a view of, that they follow the antique taste, and introduce into their arms and legs various heads of animals; and that mahogany is the chief wood used in their best chairs, into which they bring in portions of ornamental brass; and, in my opinion, not without a proper effect, when due restraint is laid on the quantity.”

Of the sofa shown on Plate LXII. Sheraton says it may be “done in white and gold, or japanned. The loose cushions at the back are generally made to fill the whole length, which would have taken four; but I could not make the design so striking with four, because they would not have been distinguished from the back of the sofa by a common observer. These cushions serve at times for bolsters, being placed against the arms to loll against. The seat is stuffed up in front about three inches high above the rail, denoted by the figure of the sprig running longways; all above that is a squab which may be taken off occasionally. If the top rail be thought to have too much work, it can be finished in a straight rail, as the design shews.”

“Our sofas are never covered with a carpet, but with various pattern cottons and silks.”

When the commode is decorated with wire-doors, Sheraton insists that green, white or pink silk shall be fluted behind them. The cabinet on Plate LX. is treated in this way.

“As pier tables are merely for ornament under a glass, they are generally made very light, and the style of finishing them is rich and elegant. Sometimes the tops are solid marble, but most commonly veneered in rich satin or other valuable wood, with a cross band on the outside, a border about two inches richly japanned and a narrow cross band beyond it, to go all round. The frames are commonly gold or white or burnished gold. Stretching-rails have of late been introduced to these tables, and it must be owned that it is with good effect, as they take off the long appearance of the legs and make the under part appear more finished; besides they afford an opportunity of fixing a vase or basket of flowers, which, with their reflection when there is a glass behind, produce a brilliant appearance.

“Some, in place of a stretcher, have a thin marble shelf with a brass rim round it, supported by a light frame; in which case the top ought to be of marble also.”

There are horse fire-screens, pole screens and tripod screens.

Pole Fire-Screens “may be ornamented variously, with maps, Chinese figures, needlework, etc. The screen is suspended on the pole by means of a spring in the eye, through which the pole goes; the feet of the two outer ones are loaded with lead to keep them steady; may be made of mahogany, but more frequently of wood japanned.”

The framework of Horse Fire-Screens should be of mahogany; the screen may be covered with green silk, needlework, etc., at pleasure.

Tripod Fire Screens he made in white and gold, mahogany or japanned. “The rods of these screens are all supposed to have a hole through them and a pulley let in near the top on which the line passes, and a weight being enclosed in the tassel, the screen is balanced to any height. The rods are often made square, which indeed best suits those which have pulleys, while those that are made round have only rings and springs.

“Such screens as have very fine prints or worked satin, commonly have a glass before them. In which case a frame is made, with a rabbet to receive the glass, and another to receive the straining frame, to prevent it from breaking the glass; and to enclose the straining frame a bead is mitred round.”

There were various sorts of dining-tables in use. “The common useful dining-tables are upon pillars and claws, generally four claws to each pillar, with brass castors. A dining-table of this kind may be made to any size, by having a sufficient quantity of pillar and claw parts, for between each of these there is a loose flap, fixed by means of iron straps and buttons, so that they are easily taken off and put aside; and the beds may be joined to each other with brass fork or strap fastenings.”

“The sizes of dining-tables for certain numbers may easily be calculated by allowing 2 feet to each person sitting at table; less than this cannot with comfort be dispensed with. A table 6 feet by 3, on a pillar and claws, will admit of eight persons, one only at each end and three on each side. By the addition of another bed, twelve, with four times the room in the centre for dishes; but if a third be joined, with the insertion of two flaps of 30 inches each, there will be agreeable room for twenty persons.” He recommends a “dining-table for eight persons to be 5 feet by 4 at which two upon each side may sit, but if reduced to 4 feet, 8½ inches long and 3 feet, 10 wide, it will dine the same number, and take the same quantity of wood as a table 6 feet by 3.”

The cellaret sideboard and sideboard with drawers which became fashionable under Heppelwhite are still more developed in Sheraton’s early period; but in his last period there seems to be a return to the old “sideboard table” without drawers. The cellaret sideboard was always supplied with a partitioned place for bottles of wine. “In large circular sideboards,” Sheraton tells us, “the left-hand drawer has sometimes been fitted up as a plate-warmer, having a rack in the middle to stick the plates in, and lined with strong tin all round, and on the underside of the sideboard top, to prevent the heat from injuring it. In this case the bottom of the drawer is made partly open, under which is fixed a small narrow drawer, to contain a heater, which gives warmth to the plates, the same as in a pedestal.

“In spacious dining-rooms the sideboards are often made without drawers of any sort, having simply a rail a little ornamented, and pedestals with vases at each end, which produce a grand effect. One pedestal is used as a plate-warmer, and is lined with tin; the other is a pot cupboard, and sometimes it contains a cellarette for wine. The vases are used for water for the use of the butler, and sometimes as knife-cases. They are sometimes made of copper japanned, but generally of mahogany.

“There are other sideboards for small dining-rooms, made without either drawers or pedestals; but have generally a wine-cooler to stand under them, hooped with brass, partitioned and lined with lead, for wine-bottles, the same as the above-mentioned cellarette drawers.”

On Plate LX., No. 3, is a pattern of a “sideboard table” which has four marble shelves at each end. “These shelves,” he explains, “are used in grand sideboards to place the small silver ware on.”

“It is not usual to make sideboards hollow in front, but if a sideboard be required 9 or 10 feet long, as in some noblemen’s houses, and if the breadth of it be in proportion to its length, it will not be easy for a butler to reach across it.” A hollow front, Sheraton thinks, would “obviate the difficulty and take off the appearance of great length. Besides, if the sideboard be near the entering door, the hollow front will sometimes secure the butler from the jostles of the other servants.”

“The pedestal is used to signify that part in cabinet furniture made nearly to the proportion and figure of a pedestal in architecture. These are generally placed at the end of sideboards, and are designed for holding plates for dinner; for which purpose there are two wooden racks, generally made of oak, in which the plates are placed. The plinth part of these pedestals is generally formed with a drawer, containing an iron stand and heater, which diffuses a warm air to the plates and keeps them in proper temperature at the time of dining. These pedestals are lined with tin completely over on the inside to prevent the heat from injuring the wood. And it may be necessary further to observe, that when there are two pedestals to a sideboard, one of them is generally fitted up in the inside, either with plain drawers or as a cupboard. On such pedestals is generally placed a vase.” This vase is usually a knife or spoon case. On Plate LXI. a sideboard with pedestals is shown. The pedestal parts are made separately and screwed to the sideboard, and the top is one large piece screwed to the pedestal. Under the long drawer of the front is a cupboard enclosed by a tambour shutter. The ornament at the back is of brass “intended as a stay for silver plate, and has branches for three candles.” If preferred the centre “may have a glass lustre hung within it as an ornament.”

Sheraton gives two designs for knife-cases, one concave, the other convex. In one of them the corner pilasters have “small flutes of white holly or other coloured wood let in, and the middle pilasters have very narrow cross bands all round, with the panels japanned in small flowers. The top is sometimes japanned, and sometimes has only an inlaid pattern. The half-columns of the right-hand case are sometimes fluted out, and sometimes the flutes are let in. The feet may be turned and twisted which will have a good effect.”

“Cellaret amongst cabinet-makers denotes a convenience for wine, or a wine cistern.” These were mostly in the form of a sarcophagus, “an imitation of the figure of ancient stone coffins.” They are adapted to stand under a sideboard, some of which have covers, and others without. Sheraton gives one design supported by dolphins, whose heads form the foot, while the tails curve upwards. The other design is supported on lions’ paws, and ornamented with lions’ heads. He recommends rings at each end of the cellaret, so that the servants can conveniently move these pieces about. “The rings and heads should be cast in brass and lacquered, and also the dolphins and lions’ paws.”

“Buffet, anciently an apartment separated from the rest of the room by small pillars or balusters. Their use was for placing china and glass ware, with other articles of a similar nature. In houses of persons of distinction in France, the Buffet is a detached room, decorated with pictures suitable to the use of such apartments, as fountains, cisterns, vases, etc. These ancient buffets seem in some measure superseded by the use of modern sideboards, but not altogether, as china is seldom, if ever, placed upon them: and we therefore think that a buffet may, with some propriety, be restored to modern use, and prove ornamental to a breakfast room, answering as the repository of a tea equipage. Under this idea, we have given a design of one intended to be executed in the following style. The lower part is to be inclosed with doors, having silk curtains, with worked brass or wire before them. The upright border on the top of the lower part is of brass, together with those round the china shelves. These shelves are supported at each end with four brass columns, made very light. The lights on each side are of brass, and may be unscrewed and taken away occasionally. As these buffets would suit well to be placed one on each side of the fireplace of a breakfast room, they might very conveniently hold such branches with the addition of one on the top, which may be screwed into a socket; or a small figure holding a light may be placed upon it. Under the cornice is a Gothic drapery and fringe above it.” This design, dated 1803, is represented on Plate LIX.

“There are three kinds of dumb waiters, but they are all made of mahogany, and are intended for the use of the dining-parlour, on which to place glasses of wine and plates, both clean, and such as have been used.” The one represented on Plate LXI., No. 3, is “partly from the French taste, on the top of which, where the glass is represented, is a slab of thin marble, which not only keeps cleaner, and looks neater than mahogany, but also tends to keep the wine cool, when a bottle for present use is placed upon it. The shelves below are for plates and a knife tray. The holes for the decanters have cases of tin fit into them, and are japanned white, which shows through the front panel in the rail, and makes it look lighter.”

Another dumb waiter that Sheraton recommends is a table similar in general form to No. 1 on Plate LX. The drawers are used for knives, etc. In the centre a shelf or waiter rises on a stem, and below it are four trays for decanters, glasses and small plates. The drawers are lined with “a tin case to fit loose in and japanned white, to have the plate trays with the balusters. These are easily taken out, and may be cleaned and replaced when necessary. And the workman must observe that the waiters turn round on the pillars; for the under pillow has a beechnut let into it, and the upper part screws itself home into it, so as to admit the waiter to turn.

“The plate trays ought to be 11 inches in diameter in the clear, and the opening for the hand 4½ inches. There is a turned astragal for the top rail and the baluster.”

A supper tray called a “Canterbury,” Sheraton says is “made to stand by a table at supper, with a circular end, and three partitions crosswise, to hold knives, forks and plates at that end, which is made circular on purpose.” An Archbishop of Canterbury is said to have invented this piece of furniture.

Sheraton made a great variety of beds. They include French beds, state beds, dome, canopy, alcove, and sofa beds. The former are very intricate. He describes them as follows: “Beds of this kind have been introduced of late with great success in England. The dome is supported by iron rods of about an inch in diameter, curved regularly down to each pillar where they are fixed with a strong screw and nut. These iron rods are covered and entirely hid by a valance, which comes in a regular sweep, and meets in a point at the vases on the pillars. Behind this valance, which continues all round, the drapery is drawn up by pulleys and tied up by a silken cord and tassels at the head of the pillars. The headboards of these beds are framed and stuffed, and covered to suit the hangings, and the frame is white and gold, if the pillars and cornice are. The bed-frame is sometimes ornamented, and has drapery valances below. Observe that grooves are made in the pillars to receive the headboards, and screwed at the top, by which means the whole is kept firm, and is easily taken to pieces. Square bolsters are now often introduced, with margins of various colours stitched all round. The counterpane has also these margins; they are also fringed at bottom, and have sometimes a drapery tied up in cords and tassels on the side.”

Of the large bed on Plate LXIII. Sheraton says:

“This design requires no explanation, except that which relates to the tester. The cove of the tester is to be formed by the ribs; one at each mitre, and other short ones joined to them with the rest about five inches apart from each other. At the upper part of the cove is a square tester into which the ribs are fixed. On the edge of this tester, which is made very light, is fixed a small moulding mitred all around. The cove being formed, the ribs may be covered with strong board-paper, both inside and out, which may either be japanned to match the furniture, or it may be covered with the furniture itself. The circular part above the cove is nothing more than a straight board fixed on to the upper tester. For the sake of easy conveyance, the cove may be made in four parts, mitering at each corner, and the ornament intended to be at each mitre on the outside running entirely up to the feathers, will hide the joint.

“The swags of silk that appear on the drapery should be fastened to the back part of the cornice in order that they may hang easy. The pillars are to be japanned. The panel that hides the screws are made to slip into a groove at the bottom, and being bevelled off behind at the top, when raised up a little from their place, by pressing the finger on the front, can easily be taken away to come at the screws. The valance and drapery both together slip on to a lath as in common.” It may be interesting to note that Sheraton preferred a “firm bed” to the soft down or feather. He recommends first a straw mattress covered with a flock mattress, upon which are placed a feather bed and then a hair mattress.

“The alcove, or recess,” he writes, “is used in Spain for seats and sometimes for beds of state. The English have imitated these by sometimes fitting up the end of long rooms in this style; which may answer both for ornament and to bring any apartment of undue length into proportion. In forming such an alcove for a place of retirement to rest on, a couple of Corinthian columns may be placed on each side of the room, so as to leave a spacious entrance into the alcove. The columns should not be placed less than six feet from the end of the room, nor more than nine, except in extraordinary cases. The seats are made low to receive their cushions, and drapery valances are fixed to the under edge of the frame. From surbase height the walls are covered with silk quilted, or disposed into uniform panels, in any other manner to suit the rest of the room. In the space between the surbase are placed back cushions, or a stuffed back, framed to fit all round and screwed to. From the frieze of the cornice below the ceiling is fixed draperies, either with or without tails: such alcoves when properly applied have a pleasing effect. When they are fitted up for beds, it will add to the effect if the bed be placed on a double plinth, in the form of two steps, laid with a carpet to suit the rest, and the effect will still be heightened, if a drapery be fixed, parting from the centre of the entrance and flowing down each side of the inner columns.

“There is a curtain under the drapery which slides on a rod, and may be brought forward to cover the whole bed. The other tied up may be considered as a fixed drapery, but may be taken down occasionally. The tester and cornice need not project more than twenty inches, and the length of the bed, including the volutes, about eight feet.”

“Duchess, a kind of bed composed of three parts, or a chair at each end and stool between them. They are only intended for a single lady, and are therefore not more than about 30 inches wide. The chair ends, when apart, have the appearance of large arm or fauteuil chairs, and the middle part may be used as a stool.” The tester is made to fold. The arms of the chair part are dolphins, and an acanthus spray ending in a scroll ornaments the back. The duchess is covered with a striped material, a square or round cushion is at each end, and the drapery is composed of two curtains falling from a kind of dome (ornamented by a pineapple or pomme), while a scarf is slipped through rings and forms a swag in front of the dome and two festoons at each side. An illustration of Sheraton’s duchess is given on Plate LIX., No. 2.

Of camp or field-bedsteads there is a great variety. They all have folding tester laths, either hexagonal or elliptical shaped, and hinged so as to fold close together. In size they run about 6 feet long and 3 feet, 6 or 9 inches in width, and between 5 feet 6 inches to 6 feet high to the crown of the tester. “Suitable for low rooms for servants or children, they receive their name on account of their being similar in size and shape to those really used in camps.”

“A sofa-bed,” which is really the lit anglais that was so fashionable in France, appears on Plate LXIII., No. 1. Both of its ends are alike, and, of course, it is supplied with two bolsters. Sheraton’s general directions regarding the “sofa-bed” are as follows:

“The frames of these beds are sometimes painted in ornaments to suit the furniture. But when the furniture is of very rich silk, they are done in white and gold, and the ornaments carved. The tablets may each have a festoon of flowers or foliage, and the cornice cut out in leaves and gilt has a good effect. The drapery under the cornice is of the French kind; it is fringed all round, and laps on to each other like unto waves. The valance serves as a ground, and is also fringed. The roses which tuck up the curtains are formed by silk cord, etc., on the wall, to suit the hangings; and observe that the centre rose contains a brass hook and socket, which will unhook so that the curtains will come forward and entirely enclose the whole bed. The sofa part is sometimes made without any back, in the manner of a couch. It must also be observed that the best kind of these beds have what the upholsterers call a fluting, which is done by a slight frame of wood, fastened to the wall, on which is strained in straight puckers, some of the same stuff of which the curtains are made.”

On Plate LXIII. No. 2 appears what Sheraton calls a “Grecian squab.” The frame is of white and gold or mahogany. The end not visible in the sketch turns up with a scroll. The back extends no further than shown. It is a kind of chaise longue, which Sheraton calls “a long chair, couch or squab.” The “chaise longue,” according to him, “has a stuffed back and arm on each side with a bolster and its use pretty much the same as the Grecian squabs or couches.” In another place he says “their use is to rest or loll upon after dinner.”

A novelty is the “Turkey sofa,” which has been “introduced into the most fashionable homes.” They are “an imitation of the Turkish mode of sitting,” and are, therefore, “made very low, scarcely exceeding a foot to the upper side of the cushion. The frame may be made of beech and must be webbed and strained with canvas to support the cushions.”

Sheraton seems to have taken a particular pleasure in all the convenient articles for the use of ladies, and these comprehend everything from dressing and work tables to tiny comb and pin trays. The work-table was generally a writing-desk as well, with compartments of all kinds arranged with the greatest economy of space. No. 2 on Plate LX. is a good specimen of a work-table dated 1793. The legs are lyre-shaped and the top rises for writing. When let down it locks into the frame and secures the bag where the work is kept. The work-bag is hidden by a drapery that is tacked to a rabbet at the under edge of the frame all around. The legs are lyre-shaped. No. 4 on the same Plate is a “Pouch-table” dated 1803. The work-bag is attached to a frame which pulls forward. In this bag ladies “deposit their fancy needlework.” “When required to be elegant,” Sheraton remarks, “black rosewood is used; otherwise they may be made very near of mahogany.” The example on Plate LX. has a brass rail around each end. Sometimes the top is finished as a chess-board. The “French work-table” was generally made of satin-wood with a brass moulding round the edge of the rim. The tambour shutter is often introduced into the work-table.

The Lady’s Cabinet dressing-table on Plate LIX. is composed of an ordinary commode, upon the top of which is a case or nest of drawers “when the washing drawers is in, a slider which is above it may be drawn out to write on occasionally. The ink and stand are in the right-hand drawer under the centre dressing-glass. Behind the drapery, which is tacked to a rabbet and fringed or gimped to cover the nails, is a shelf on which may stand any vessel to receive the dirty water. Above the drapery are tambour cupboards, one at each end, and one in the centre under the drawer. Above the tambour at each end are real drawers, which are fitted up to hold every article necessary in dressing. The drawers in the cabinet part are intended to hold all the ornaments of dress, as rings, drops, etc. Behind the centre glass is drapery; it may be real to suit that below, or it may only be painted in imitation of it. This swings to any position, on centre pins fixed on the shelf above the candle branches. The side glasses fold in behind the doors, and the doors themselves, when shut, appear solid, with ovals in the panels and ornamented to suit the other parts.”

Sheraton devotes many plates to articles that appeal to gentlemen. His shaving-stands and dressing-glasses are marvels of convenience. The tambour shutter appears in many of the night-tables, bason-stands, etc., etc., and when it is not employed, little silk curtains hang down across the shelves or doors. No. 5 on Plate LX. is a “corner bason stand.” The bowl or bason fits into the hollow and the water-jug stands in the centre of the straining-rails.

The Pembroke Table differed little from Heppelwhite’s. It is “used for a gentleman or lady to breakfast on. The style of finishing these tables is very neat, sometimes bordering upon elegance, being at times made of satin wood, and having richly japanned borders round their tops with ornamental drawer fronts.”

The Harlequin Pembroke Table “serves not only as a breakfast table, but also as a writing table, very suitable for a lady.” This was equipped with “ingenious machinery,” and contained a “nest of drawers” that could be “raised to any height.”

A design particularly associated with Sheraton is the “kidney library table.” Of the one appearing as No. 3 on Plate LIX., Sheraton writes: “This piece is termed a kidney-table on account of its resemblance to that intestine part of animals so called. The drawers are strung and cross-banded with mahogany laid up and down. The pilasters are panelled or cross-banded, and the feet are turned.” This is intended for a writing-table. The French call this shape haricot. The secretary and book-case was popular throughout the whole Sheraton period. Two examples are shown on Plate LXI. One is a full drawing, which needs no description, except to say that silk, preferably green, is fluted behind the glass doors. The other, appearing as Nos. 1 and 2, Sheraton thus describes.

“The use of this piece is to hold books in the upper part, and in the lower it contains a writing-drawer and clothes-press shelves. The design is intended to be executed in satin-wood, and the ornaments japanned. It may, however, be done in mahogany; and in place of the ornaments in the friezes, flutes may be substituted. The pediment is simply a segment of a circle, and it may be cut in the form of a fan with leaves in the centre. The vases may be omitted to reduce the work; but if they are introduced, the pedestal on which the centre vase rests is merely a piece of thin wood, with a necking and base moulding mitred round, and planted on the pediment. The pilasters on the bookcase doors are planted on the frame, and the door hinged as usual. The tops of the pilasters are made to imitate the Ionic capital.” The cylinder desk and bookcase was also in use. “The style of finishing them is somewhat elegant, being made of satin-wood, cross-banded and varnished. This design shows green silk fluting behind the glass, and drapery put on at the top before the fluting is tacked to, which has a good look when properly managed. The square figure of the door is much in fashion now.” The rim around the top is brass.

A good library table is No. 1, on Plate LX.

No. 1 on Plate LX. Sheraton calls very modern (1803). He recommends it to be made of mahogany. “The toes and casters are of one piece cast in brass. The nest of drawers in the centre rise, by two small springs placed opposite to each other, which are constructed on the model of baize door springs, which cannot but be understood by any workman who is acquainted with hanging a door of that kind. In this table, there are four real drawers made with square sides.” For card-tables, he says: “The ornaments may be japanned on the frames and tongued in the legs.”

Turning now to smaller articles, we find that convex and concave mirrors with gilt frames and branches for candles and standing tripods bearing lights are very fashionable. Brackets for lamps are made usually of brass and sometimes of mahogany. They are often screwed to the handrail of the staircase. Brackets are also especially designed for clocks. Clocks are also placed upon the chimney-piece and upon the commode. In Sheraton’s Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterers Drawing-Book there are a number of tall clock-cases painted and japanned with ovals and arabesques and fanciful pictures; but in 1803 Sheraton writes that the tall clock-case is “almost obsolete in London,” and from what he says we gather that no fashionable person would think of having one in his house. The footstool is stuffed with hair and covered generally with needlework. Its frame is oval, square, or octagon, with turned legs. Its height without stuffing is 6 or 6½ inches; its length 9½ to a foot, and its width 7 to 8 inches.

A group of three or four tables with very light frames made to draw out and inclosed within each other when not wanted are known as quartette and trio tables. These are used at entertainments, like the “rout chairs,” which are “small painted chairs with rush bottoms let out by cabinet-makers for hire for routs and other entertainments, whence their name.”

Among Sheraton’s latest chairs there is an arm-chair with a movable desk, having branching candle-sconces,—useful for the library; another is a “hunting-chair,” with a square back and wings “stuffed all over except the legs which are of mahogany and having a slide out frame in front to make a resting-place for one that is fatigued, as hunters usually are.” There is also a “tub easy chair,” “stuffed all over and intended for sick persons, being both easy and warm; for the side wings coming quite forward keep out the cold air.” Another is a bergÈre with a caned back and seat, supplied with loose cushions. “The stumps and legs are turned and the frames are generally painted.”

This bergÈre is dated 1803, when Sheraton recommends cane of “a fine light straw colour.” He writes: “Caning cabinet work is now more in use than it was ever known to be at any former period. About 30 years since, it was gone quite out of fashion. But on the revival of japanning furniture, it began to be brought gradually into use, and to a state of improvement, so that at present it is introduced into several pieces of furniture, which it was not a few years past, as the ends of beds framed in mahogany, and then caned for the purpose of keeping in the bed clothes. Sometimes the bottom of beds are caned. Small borders round the backs of mahogany parlour chairs which look neat. Bed steps are caned.

“The commonest kind made of one skain only is called bead-work and runs open. The best work is termed bordering and is of three skains, some of which is done very fine and close with the skains less than a sixteenth broad, so that it is worked as fine apparently as some canvas.”

Two of Sheraton’s original designs show the Empire influence. One is the curricle which appears on Plate LXII., No. 12. Sheraton named these chairs “from their being shaped like that kind of carriage. These may claim entire originality, and are well adapted for dining-parlours, being of a strong form easy and conveniently low affording easier access to a dining-table than the commonest kind. The size of the front may be two feet over all and nearly that from back to front.”

His other original design is the “Herculaneum,” “which I have so named on account of their antique style of composition.” They are for “rooms not only fitted up in the antique taste, but where apartments are appropriated for the purpose of exhibiting ancient or modern curiosities; and we particularly recommend them for the use of music-rooms.”

He also presents “conversation chairs,” which are exactly the voyeuse. (See pages 32 and 278.)