The library table is from 3 to 4 feet long and 3 feet deep. It is of mahogany, and covered on top with leather or green cloth. Some of them have cupboards in front for books, papers, etc.
The room on Plate [LIII.] is an arrangement of Heppelwhite’s own plan, regarding which he remarks: “Having gone through a complete series or suit of Household Furniture, we were strongly advised to draw out a plan, which should shew the manner of properly disposing of the same: with this intent, aided by the advice of some experienced friends, we here shew, at one view, the necessary and proper furniture for a Drawing-room, and also for a Dining-room or Parlour, subject to the following variations: If the object of this plan was a Drawing-room only, on each side of the chimney-piece there should be a sofa, and on the opposite side, instead of a sofa, should be a confidante: the sideboard also should be removed, and an elegant commode substituted in the place. The remaining space may be filled up with chairs. For a dining-room, instead of the pier-tables, should be a set of dining-tables. The rest of the furniture, and the general ordonnance of the room is equally proper, except the glass over the sofa, which might be omitted; but this is mere opinion, many of the Dining Parlours of our first nobility having full as much glass as is here shewn.”
The proper furniture for a Drawing-room and for a Dining-room or Parlour, being thus pointed out, it remains only to observe, that the general appearance of the latter should be plain and neat, while the former, being considered as a State-room, should possess all the elegance embellishments can give.”
The side of the room which the reader cannot see contains four windows, furnished with window stools and lambrequins; and, between each window, pier-glasses and pier-tables stand. These semi-circular tables were used, when necessary, to extend the square table in the centre of the room: one being placed at each end, for the extension table had not come into fashion.
THE SHERATON PERIOD
THE SHERATON PERIOD
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: