The Golden State: Where & How to Live, Secure, Visit, Enjoy and Thrive in California
Furniture Finishing
Owing to his mechanical bent, Sheraton was looked upon in his day as something of an inventor. In his cabinet work he introduced secret drawers and compartments with springs, roll tops for desks and all sorts of ingenious folding furniture— wash stands and other bedroom pieces convertible into bookcases and writing tables. In his hey-day he received commissions for whole apartments and their furnishings from the Prince of Wales and many of the nobility. But with all this, Sheraton's impractical qualities so persistently asserted themselves that, though he endeavored to follow a changed popular taste, he died in poverty.
In his "Cabinet Maker and Upholsterer's Drawing Book." published in 1791, Sheraton proves his title as the "chaste designer" and demonstrates his talent for working severe lines into furniture of graceful elegance. Its extreme slenderness was inspired partly by the classicism of Louis XVI and partly by a real or feigned contempt for the work of his contemporaries. But from one of these, Shearer, his work is difficult to distinguish, for both were not only lovers of lightness and beautiful contours, but of sound construction as well. Thus many of their originals still survive in good condition where styles of sturdier appearance have not.
Sheraton's chairs most forcefully illustrate his happy commingling of delicacy with strength. The backs are gently raked and square, filled in over a straight cross bar with lattice work, plain splats, a lyre or an urn, the top line straight or slightly broken. Slender fluted legs in round or square forms tapered straight down to natural or spade feet and arms, where not straight, curved continuously from back to front supports. Upholstery differed from that of Ilepplewhite in that it reveals the frame instead of being pulled over it. Caning was largely used, alone and with pierced panels on settees.
Where Ilepplewhite and Shearer gave to their sideboards a serpentine front, Sheraton preferred a complete convex or a single swelling set between square ends. The back often included a brass railing after the style of the Adam Brothers and the interior was filled with all sorts of small drawers, shelves, boxes, etc. Innumerable card tables, kidney-shaped desks, sectional bookcases, the clothes press and wardrobe for the bedroom complete the roll of distinctive Sheraton creations.
Although Sheraton favored satinwood, he employed mahogany extensively in his chairs and as feathered and fiddle back veneers on some cabinet work. Carving was used with the utmost restraint—chiefly smaller Adam forms such as urns, vases, sunbursts and rosettes. Ivory and brass key plates and metal drawer pulls were of the simplest design. Sheraton's favorite mode of decoration was inlay wherein his skill has never been surpassed. Kingwood, tulip, rosewood and holly were the chief mediums which he often placed between narrow lines of ebony producing an effect of rare beauty.
