WITH the last and one of the two greatest English furniture designers it is possible to give some biographical particulars. Thomas Sheraton was born in 1751 at Stockton-on-Tees. He had no regular education, but' showed,' as the Dictionary of National Biography somewhat paradoxically phrases it, ' from the first natural artistic learning,1 and taught himself drawing and geometry.' A zealous baptist, his first publication was A Scriptural Illustration of the Doctrine of Regeneration, 1782, by 'Thomas Sheraton, junior,' a 'mechanic' This description of himself is of more interest to us than the subject of the work. A mechanic or mechanician Sheraton certainly showed himself in the interior workings of his furniture, but he was a great deal more than that. 'As a practical cabinetmaker he does not seem to have attained much success, but as a designer of furniture he developed a skill and originality which placed him in the front rank of technical artists.' Sheraton came to London in 1790, and, living in Soho, began to publish a series of manuals of furniture design. The first was a collection of 84 large folio plates called Designs for Furniture, but not dated.

In 1791 appeared his best work, The Cabinet-Makers and Upholsterer'5 Drawing-Book, with 'Accompaniment' and Appendix within the next two years. This book was a quarto with 111 plates.

The second edition (1793-1706) contained 119 plates, and the third (1802) 122 plates. This last is rare, and a reprint, undated, has been published by Mr. R. T. Batsford.

1 The biographer presumably meant to write leaning.