SHERATON—THE PURIST
The last of the three great cabinetmakers represents the culmination of the classic spirit derived both from the brothers Adam and the French Louis XVI style. Sheraton’s productions, or rather his designs, depicted in the “Cabinet-maker and Upholsterer’s Drawing-Book,” have little of the vigor and strength of Chippendale’s work; but they are always characterized by delicacy and refinement.
EXAMPLES OF SHERATON CHAIRS
Sheraton designed furniture both in mahogany and in satinwood, decorated by inlay and by painting, and it is with this last style, the introduction of which was largely due to the popularity of the gifted young artist Angélique Kauffmann, that he is particularly identified. His work in mahogany is characterized by simplicity of form and by the tasteful use of inlay, in which respect he was perhaps the equal of Heppelwhite.
His chair backs are almost always based upon the straight line, and, although sometimes made petty by the introduction of inappropriate classic ornament, they exhibit on the whole much skill and refinement in composition. In the legs of chairs and tables he almost invariably used turned and tapering supports, which were frequently decorated by reeding. In the sides and often the backs of his chairs he reintroduced the vogue of canework, which had not appeared in fashionable furniture since the seventeenth century.
Sheraton’s satinwood furniture took the form mainly of commodes or bureaus, small writing desks, toilet tables, and other lighter articles for the boudoir. The daintiness and elegance of some of these pieces decorated by the brush of Angélique Kauffmann or Pergolesi challenge comparison with some of the exquisite furniture made during the reign of Louis XVI, and they mark the final culmination of English furniture before its degeneration into the mediocrity of later times.
SHERATON SIDEBOARD