Hepplewhite, the second of the master cabinet-makers, succeeded Chippendale in popular favor in 1789, and his furniture, while much lighter and consequently less durable than that of his predecessor, showed a beauty of form and a wealth of ornamentation that rendered it most artistic. He employed not only carving of the most delicate and exquisite nature, but inlay and painting as well, introducing japanning after the style of Vernis-Martin work.
The shield or heart-shaped back is one of the characteristics of his chairs, though he also used oval backs and sometimes even square backs. They are all very graceful and delicate, with carved drapery, and many of the shield-shaped type show for decoration the three feathers of the Prince of Wales, Hepplewhite being one of the Prince's party when sentiment ran strong during the illness of George III. Other decorations employed by him were the urn, husk and ear of wheat. The wood he generally used was mahogany, though occasionally he made use of painted satinwood.
Plate XXVIII.—Sheraton, mahogany frame, about 1800; Sheraton with solid arms and straight, slender legs; Sheraton, about 1790. Note the graceful curve of the arms.
Following close upon the heels of Hepplewhite came Sheraton, the last of the three great masters in cabinet-work. His designs were delicate, but strong, and generally his chair backs were firmer than those of Hepplewhite. When he had exhausted other forms of decoration, he indulged his fancy for brilliant coloring, mixing it with both inlay and carving. Later he embellished his work with the white and gold of the French style, finally employing features of the Napoleonic period, such as brass mounts and brass inlay. His last seats show the influence of the Empire type, which came into vogue in the early days of the nineteenth century, and the curved piece which he brought in about 1800 served as a model for nearly a century, though it was not adorned with the brass mounts that he had intended.
His greatest glory as a constructor lies in his skillful workmanship and his excellent choice of woods,—satinwood, tulipwood, rosewood, applewood, and occasionally mahogany, being his selection; and as a decorator in the color and arrangement of his marquetry, as well as in the fact that he never allowed consideration of ornament to affect his work as a whole.
Among the chairs he fashioned was one that has come to be known in this country as the Martha Washington chair, from the fact that a specimen of this type was owned at Mount Vernon. Several excellent examples of his chairs are found at "Hey Bonnie Hall," in Bristol, Rhode Island, one of them being the chair in which John Adams is said to have died.
