Neoclassicism - England - Part 6

Sheraton followed the Drawing Book with the Cabinet Dictionary in 1803, another book of designs with practical guidance on cabinet - and chair-making, and in 1805 came the first instalment of his most ambitious undertaking, the Cabinet-Maker, Upholsterer and General Artist's Encyclopaedia of which only about a quarter was completed before 1806 when Sheraton died, poverty-stricken, lonely and deranged, with no inkling of the influence his work was to have on succeeding generations of cabinet-makers.

Handmade furniture of the late 18th and early 19th centuries had evolved as much in type of variety as in form from that being produced a couple of decades before. To begin with, dining rooms had become commonplace in the houses of the middle classes as well as in the stately homes of the aristocracy, and a whole range of fitted and non fitted furniture - generally of imposing dimensions - developed for them. The dining table itself was by now a large affair, fitted with additional leaves when company was expected; chairs were 'respectable and substantial' and the sideboard, sometimes with a cellaret or sarcphagus under its middle section, had become a commodious item with a central drawer flanked by two smaller drawers or cupboards in which cutlery, glass, silver and a chamber pot could be kept. Lead-lined compartments were sometimes fitted for warming plates or cooling wine.

'The drawing room', according to Sheraton writing in the Cabinet Dictionary in 1803, 'is to concentrate the elegance of the whole house, and is the highest display of richness of furniture.' Here, furnishings were formal and upholstery lavish, but it was in the ante-rooms and breakfast rooms that the greatest changes were seen. For in these smaller rooms the main occupations of the household took place. Bookcases and writing desks had developed new forms. The Carlton House writing table with a superstructure of small drawers surrounding three sides of the writing space was probably named after a piece designed for the Prince of Wales' residence, Carlton House, and the davenport, a much smaller feminine item appeared about the same time, that is, during the 1790s. It is named after a Captain Davenport for whom Gillows probably made the first of its kind.

Flexible sliding tambour doors for cupboards and tops for writing and work tables, made from strips of wood glued to canvas, were one of the many innovations from France in the late 18th century. They were in widespread use in England by the 1780s, and were popular for several decades, although by 1803 Sheraton was complaining that they were unsatisfactory for furniture in constant use 'being both insecure, and very liable to injury'.

...to be continued.