Traditional furniture, like the designs crafted by Amish wood workers of today, would not seem what it is if not for the name Sheraton. Englishman Thomas Sheraton authored and published the most important trade catalogue, “The Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer’s Drawing Book”, in the latter eighteenth century. For better or for worse this book was so well received and extolled that it caused much of the traditional designs of that period to be accredited to the furniture designer and journeyman cabinetmaker, Thomas Sheraton.

Every artisan has some sort of mystery or secret and Sheraton was no exception. While he is credited as one the three biggest designers of his time, there is no evidence he actually ever owned a workshop. In fact, there is no evidence that he ever made large amounts of any type of furniture, including those he drafted out in his famous book. Sadly, Sheraton passed away at age 55, having been employed as a journeyman cabinet-maker for many years and later an author, leaving his family in “distressing circumstances”.

Thomas Sheraton is recognized to have provided the world with exquisite draftsmanship and technically important information when he designed his catalogue. He had a knack for focusing on the details that was so often missed by other author’s design books. Influenced by French designs, Sheraton’s mind was drawn to the geometry and the precision of Louis XVI. Sheraton also enjoyed the use of satinwood in his furniture and many pieces built in the late 1700’s using satinwood were blamed on or credited to his design theories. He did believe that for his large library tables mahogany was the preferred wood.

Sheraton published again. In 1803 he completed The Cabinet Dictionary but he never finished The Cabinet-Maker, Upholsterer, and General Artist’s Encyclopedia. Only one volume was published in 1805, a year before he passed away.

Tags: Amish, Books, cabinetmaker, draftsmanship, Furniture, furniture design, Louis XVI, Mahogany, Thomas Sheraton

This entry was posted on Saturday, May 16th, 2009 at 12:07 am and is filed under Amish Furniture Styles, Chairs, Dining Room Furniture, History of Furniture Making, Upholstered Furniture. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.