KNEEHOLE TABLE, BY SHERATON.
Thomas Sheraton, who commenced work some twenty years later than Chippendale, and continued in business until the early part of the nineteenth century, accomplished much excellent work in English furniture.
CHAIRS, BY SHERATON
The fashion had now changed; instead of the rococo—literally, rock work and shell (roequaille et coquaille)—ornament, which had gone out, a simpler and more severe taste had come in. In Sheraton's cabinets, chairs, writing tables, and occasional pieces, we have therefore no longer the cabriole leg or the carved ornament; but, as in the case of the brothers Adam, and the furniture designed by them for such houses as those in Portland Place, we have now square tapering legs, severe lines, and quiet ornament. Sheraton trusted almost entirely for decoration to his marqueterie. Some of this is very delicate and of excellent workmanship. He introduced occasionally into his scrolls animals with foliated extremities, and he also inlaid marqueterie trophies of musical instruments; but as a rule the decoration was in wreaths of flowers, husks, or drapery, in strict adherence to the fashion of the decorations to which allusion has been made. A characteristic feature of his cabinets was the swan-necked pediment surmounting the cornice, being a revival of an ornament fashionable during Queen Anne's reign. It was then chiefly found in stone, marble, or cut brickwork, but subsequently became prevalent in inlaid woodwork.
A CHINA CABINET AND A BOOKCASE WITH SECRETAIRE.
Designed by T. Sheraton, and published in his "Cabinet Maker and Upholsterer's Drawing Book," 1793.